Esperanza Relay Team Advances

It didn’t take long for drama to unfold at the Southern Section Division I track and field preliminaries Saturday afternoon and it played out to an Orange County team’s advantage.

It happened in the fourth running event of the day at Veterans Stadium. Long Beach Wilson, the national leader in the 400-meter relay, dropped the baton on the exchange at the end of the third leg. The Bruins were disqualified and Esperanza capitalized by finishing first (49.41). It was the slowest qualifying time in five heats, and paled in comparison to Wilson’s best time of 46.04. But by finishing first, the Aztecs automatically qualified for next week’s section final. Had Wilson won, Esperanza would not have advanced.

Nicole Lomeli, running the third leg for Esperanza, had a clear view of Wilson’s botched exchange between Latrice Borders and Lashinda Demus. The Bruins were in front by at least 20 meters.

“I was in awe,” said Lomeli, running in the fourth lane. She shouted out at Aztec anchor Shalanie Ross when she handed her the baton, as Wilson’s stick rolled along the ground in lane No. 6. “I was telling her to go.”

It was an otherwise mixed day of results for Sunset and South Coast participants, with the field events turning out to be the county’s strongest suit.

An exception came at the end of the day in the 3,200, when Fountain Valley freshman Julia Allen won her heat with the fifth-best time (11:10.71) of the day.

But the Trabuco Hills boys’ 1,600 relay team, which won its heat, was disqualified for running out of its lane.

Perhaps the best all-around county showing came from the Sunset League in the boys’ pole vault, where Brandon Guffy (Esperanza), Jeff Ryan (Huntington Beach), Logan Odden (Marina) and Tommy Sparks (Esperanza) all qualified at 13-6.

Esperanza’s Travis Pendleton posted the best qualifying toss in the discus (169-0), and Sunset League champion Sam Lightbody qualified second (166-1).

Lightbody criticized the placement of the discus ring, which is arranged for tosses to be taken downwind, unlike the ring at the site of the finals at Cerritos College, which is upwind.

“I never throw well here,” said Lightbody, who went on to qualify first (58-7 1/2) in the shotput.

Mike Diciolla of Mission Viejo had the second-best qualifying mark (52-6 1/4) in the shotput and Dustin Pratt of Trabuco Hills was eighth (50-7 1/4).

Bianca and Rachael Ziemann of Edison joined Marla White of San Clemente in qualifying at 5-3 in the high jump.

Caroline Rebello of Marina cleared 10-4 in the pole vault and qualified for the finals and Bridgett Pearson of Glendale Hoover set a meet record by clearing 12-2 1/2.

Maribeth Buche of Esperanza, who won the girls’ 400, 800, 1,600 and anchored the winning 1,600-meter relay team a week ago at the Sunset League finals, ran 5:21.31, 10 seconds off her season best, and failed to qualify in the 1,600. She chose not to compete in the 400, then finished second in her heat in the 800. Her time of 2:17.76, sixth-best on the day, was good enough to qualify and then she anchored the Aztecs’ 1,600 relay team that captured its heat at 4:02.03.