With Riverside County's very best competing at the Southern Section Masters Meet, we saw most of our studs continue thier seasons onto next week's California State Meet.  With the 2009 state meet moving up to Buchanan High School, just outside Fresno - we have one of the strongest groups in county history booking their rooms for next weekend!   Under gloomy skies (2nd year in a row), the distance runners thrived while some of the sprint marks were slightly hindered.  In the field events, as is the case at this round, most athletes simply acheived the 'at-large" standard and closed out their competition.  The top five automatically moved on with anybody outside that group looking to acheive the at-large standard (average of the 9th place mark from the past three state meets).    

Rancho Verde suffered no true casualities in their quest for dual state team titles!   If scoring the meet, Rancho Verde's boys would have won on the boys' side with their girls falling a little short to favorite, Long Beach Poly.  Much to Coach Drescher's delight, all projected scorers for the Mustangs did advance (87% of their entries).  Meanwhile, ALL of Vista Murrieta's boys entered also moved on but without some amount of stress to Coach Candaele.  In nursing a quad injury this past month, Nick Ross had to use five of his long jumps to go beyond the 22-8 standard while DJ Lloyd had to come up huge on his last jump to advance.  La Sierra's Reggie Wyatt decided to drop the 200, as with the Masters Meet, there is very limited recovery time.  So, he focus solely on winning the state titles in the 400 and 300 Hurdles.  He own both of his races, while just missing the county record of 46.34 with his 46.54 effort!    Closing out the meet, with the boys' 4x400, the Mustangs ran wild in giving Riverside County the top two teams!  In an exciting conclusion, Rancho Verde's Paul Robertson held off a nice charge by Roosevelt's Bryan Adams with both being timed around the 47.0-47.5 range!  Both had already moved on in their the 400 meters.   A slight line-up change for Roosevelt paid dividends as they posted over a 2 second pr!  San Jacinto sophomore Immanuel Hutchinson came in as an alternate but rose to the challenge in taking 3rd in the 800! 

Rancho Verde's girls roared to a 4+ second personal best in winning the 4x400 relay in recording the 3rd fastest time in the nation!  After coming off the 5th fastest 400m in county history (54.68), Gabby Estell led her squad by splitting under 54.0 and holding a determine opponent!  With Asiah Gooden (2nd in the 100m) dropping the 200, expect their squad to be even fresher next week!   Alycia Herring moved on to her 3rd straight trip in the long jump whil also advancing in the 200 meters (2nd place).  Their lone senior, Brittany Bozeman, moves on to her 4th straight state meet, advancing in the long jump and both relays!   Another nice peak we're witnessing here is in that of the Vista Murrieta's 4x100 relay squad.  They moved by placing 5th in their event, but have improved by over a second in the last month with a county 8th best all-time best of 46.58! 

Norco's Ashley Perkins moves on in the long and triple jumps.  She only needed two long jumps to meet the standard but had to utilize all of her triple jumps to ensure the trip up north.  Great Oak sends its first ever athlete to the state meet as Shaylynn Fisher finished a strong 3rd in the discus.   Her first throw met the standard and confirmed that Coach Soles will indeed be taking next Friday off from work!   Vista del Lago's Karlie Creal almost pulled it off.  After falling in last week's Finals and bein advanced on a judgement call, she made the most of it with a 2:14.28 effort!  This is the 4th fastest time in Riverside County history. 

GIRLS
100 meters (12.01)
2. *Asiah Gooden (Rancho Verde) 11.77

200 meters  (24.32)
2. *Alycia Herring (Rancho Verde) 24.4o
8. *Asiah Gooden (Rancho Verde) 24.88

400 meters  (56.24)
4. **Gabby Estell (Rancho Verde) 54.72 (#5 AT-new school record)

800 meters  (2:12.33)
12. **Karlie Creal (Vista del Lago) 2:14.28 (#4 AT-new school record) 

100 Hurdles  (14.43)
8. *Amber Clark (Rancho Verde) 14.76

300 Hurdles  (44.12)
3. -Ericka Nowell (Perris) 42.68
7. -Marjani Maldonado (JW North) 44.53

400 Relay  (47.78)
1. Rancho Verde - 45.81 (already holds #3 AT)
5. Vista Murrieta - 46.58 (#8 AT - new school record)

1600 Relay  (3:54.22)
1. Rancho Verde - 3:44.02 (#4 AT - new school record)

High Jump (5-5)
6. **Sophia Ederaine (Canyon Springs) 5-5

Long Jump (18-3)
4. *Alycia Herring (Rancho Verde) 18-11.25
5. -Ashley Perkins (Norco) 18-7.75
6. -Brittany Bozeman (Rancho Verde) 18-7.75

Triple Jump  (38-9)
3. -Ashley Perkins (Norco) 38-8.25

Discus  (136-11)
3. -Shaylynn Fisher (Great Oak) 137-0
10. *Rachel Boaz (Murrieta Valley) 129-2

BOYS
100 meters  (10.74)
4. -Kenny Jackson (Elsinore) 10.84

200 meters  (21.57)
3. -Greg Hornsby (Rancho Verde) 21.75
5. -Kenny Jackson (Elsinore) 21.77

400 meters  (48.57)
1. -Reggie Wyatt (La Sierra) 46.54 (#2 AT)
6. -Bryan Adams (Roosevelt) 47.95 (#10 AT-new school record)
7. -Paul Robertson (Rancho Verde) 48.18

800 meters  (1:54.77)
2. *Ruben Danielson (Rancho Verde) 1:54.00
3. **Immanuel Hutchinson (San Jacinto) 1:54.09
4. -Donte Holland (JW North) 1:54.25
12. **Ray Noble (Valley View) 1:57.27

1600 meters  (4:15.20)
11. -Victor Delgado (Beaumont) 4:17.71
12. -Jake Jeanson (Woodcrest Christian) 4:21.80

3200 meters  (9:12.57)
8. -Noe Ramirez (Vista Murrieta) 9:06.59 (#7 AT-new school record)

300 Hurdles  (38.36)
1. -Reggie Wyatt (La Sierra) 36.88
7. *Jaeon Davis (Vista del Lago) 38.77

400 Relay  (42.09)
3. Rancho Verde - 41.49 (#3 AT)
6. Roosevelt - 41.84 (#10 AT-new school record)

1600 Relay  (3:19.96)
1. Rancho Verde - 3:14.06 (#4 AT)
2. Roosevelt - 3:14.22 (#5 AT - new school record)

High Jump  (6-6)
2. -Nick Ross (Vista Murrieta) 6-6
10. -Nick Gregory (Chaparral) 6-4
11. -Mike Albrecht (ML King) 6-4

Pole Vault  (14-10)
9. *Austin Woods (Canyon Springs) 13-10

Long Jump (22-8)
2. -Nick Ross (Vista Murrieta) 23-2.5
5. -DJ Lloyd (Vista Murrieta) 22-10.5

Triple Jump  (46-8)
1. -Kurtis Wilson (Rancho Verde) 48-2.5
3. -Nick Ross (Vista Murrieta) 47-1.25
10. -Paul Turner (Indio) 45-7.5

Shot Put  (56-8)
7. -Jeff Tavashati (Murrieta Valley) 55-4