Santin’s Season Ends on a Low

SACRAMENTO —  A disappointing junior season in the girls’ 300-meter low hurdles came to an end for Frances Santin of Taft High in her preliminary heat of the state track and field championships at Hughes Stadium on Friday night.

Santin set a school record of 43.24 seconds to win her qualifying heat of the state meet last year before finishing sixth in the final at 43.99, but she was a non-qualifying sixth in 45.83 in her heat Friday.

Santin was hampered by shin splints earlier in the season but she said Wednesday that tightness in her right hip might have been the reason for her inability to break 45 seconds after winning a heat of the Mt. San Antonio College Relays in 44.63 on April 19.

“I’m not sure what it is,” she said. “Maybe I’m growing. I know that my [right] hip has felt tight lately. It just doesn’t feel loose like it has in the past.”

Santin’s late-season slide has been particularly frustrating to her and Taft Coach Mel Hein because she started the year strong, winning the Alemany-Northridge Relays in a hand-timed 44.7 on March 8 and the Pasadena Games in a season best of 44.04 three weeks later.

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Running on empty: The numbers said that the early pace in the final of the girls’ 1,600 on Saturday shouldn’t have been too fast for Elaine Canchola of Nordhoff, but her sixth-place time of 5:01.95 said differently.

Canchola, who had run 4:55.62 in her qualifying heat Friday, said she wanted to go through the first 400 in 68 or 69 seconds and then settle into the race, but she got progressively slower after leading the field through the first lap in 70.2.

“I don’t know,” Canchola said when asked if she went out too fast. “It didn’t seem like that.”

Canchola maintained third place behind Julia Stamps of Santa Rosa and Kristen Gorden of Concord Carondelet through 800 and 1,200 meters, but then her pursuers began to reel her in.

Jennifer Akana of San Francisco Lowell, who finished third in 4:57.87, passed her with 250 meters to go and Anne-Elyse Smith of Aptos, who ran 4:59.17, and Julie Ott of San Diego University, who clocked 5:00.44, went past her in the stretch.

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Fast facts: The Notre Dame boys’ 1,600 relay team of Roderick Arzu, David Escobar, Chris Forde and Justin Fargas moved into third on the all-time region list Friday night when it clocked a school-record of 3:14.84 to place second in its qualifying heat.

The only teams from the region to have run faster than the Knights were Simi Valley in 1987 and San Fernando in 1975.

Simi Valley clocked 3:13.65 in the 1,600 relay and San Fernando ran 3:15.6 in the mile relay, which converts to a time of 3:14.5 for 1,600 meters. . . .

Junior Eboni Grayson of Taft moved to eighth on the all-time region list in the girls’ 200 at 24.32 on Friday and sophomore Tiffany Thompson of Notre Dame strengthened her hold on 10th in 24.50, both finishing second in their qualifying heats.

Grayson climbed to seventh on Saturday at 24.29 and finished fourth in the final, improving the school record for the third time in nine days.

Grayson clocked 24.42 to win the City Section title on May 29. . . .

Courtney Palmore of Oxnard, who qualified third in the boys’ long jump on Friday, dropped three spots in the final but his wind-aided leap of 23 feet 8 1/2 inches made him the first Ventura County athlete to place among the top six in that event since 1986. Mike Carnes of Simi Valley placed sixth at 22-9 1/2 that year. . . .

Junior Ika Eliashvili of Birmingham had her streak of school-record performances in the girls’ triple jump snapped at four meets in a row Saturday when she finished ninth with a wind-aided jump of 37-7.

Eliashvili, competing in the triple jump for the first time this season, set a Birmingham record of 37-10 in Friday’s qualifying.