A disqualification in the 4×100 relay lit a fire under Emma Redick of Dos Pueblos.
Redick channeled her disappointment in her three individual sprint events at the Channel League track and field championships on Friday at La Playa Stadium. She burned up the track winning the 100, 200 and 400 to lead all local qualifiers for next week’s CIF Prelims.
Redick clocked 12.72 in the 100, 25.88 in the 200 and 58.22 in the 400.
The 400 was her first race after the relay mishap and she took the lead from Buena freshman Alisa Houston in the middle of the final turn.
“It felt really good,” Redick said of her 400 race. “We fumbled the handoff in the four by one and got DQ’d, so it was nice to come back and have a solid race today.”
She came back for the 100 and looked strong in beating Ventura’s Kylie Herman and Jillian Fisher of San Marcos.
“I was a little nervous because I’m coming off being sick, so I was a little bit dizzy. I was able to focus and it felt really good. That was like my all-time favorite race this season.”
Dos Pueblos had a pair of athletes bring home two championships each: Stamatia Scarvelis captured the girls shot put (46-7) and discus (143-06), while Bryan Fernandez completed the boys distance double, taking the 1600 (4:19.33) and 3200 (9:38.53).
Scarvelis, the defending state champion in the shot put and the state leader in shot and discus, said Friday was all about qualifying for the postseason.
Fernandez ran away from the field in the 1600 and ran a tactical race with his DP teammates in the 3200. He, Cole Smith and Max Davis ran in a lead pack like they did in cross country and kept the pace slow until the final two laps. Smith finished second in 9:39.78 and Davis was third in 9:41.68
Santa Barbara’s Brenton Walker was a jumps double winner. He went a career-best 21-11 in the long jump, edging Ventura’s Keenan Davis by one inch, and took the high jump at 6-2.
Walker said he was fired up to go beyond his PR of 21-5.
“I was getting psyched all day, saying, ‘I can do this, I can do this,’” said Walker. “The first attempt I beat my PR, got 21-8 and the third jump I got 21-11, so I was really happy about that.”
Walker said he’d been watching YouTube videos on long jumping to help him improve his technique.
Ventura’s Hannah Kirkegard posted two impressive wins in the girls distance races. She ran 5:03 in the 1600 and 11:08.94 in the 3200.
Eric Beilke earned two wins for the Ventura boys, taking the shot put (53-10) and discus (172-9).
Holly Tokar of the Cougars soared to new heights in the girls pole vault, clearing a league record 12-10.
Other local champions were DP’s Niema Poindexter in the girls triple jump (36-7.75); the San Marcos 4×100 relay team of Olivia Jones, Caroline Vance, Ashley Julio and Jillian Fisher (PR of 50.28); Santa Barbara’s Gavin Koehn in the boys 200 (22.70); DP’s John Linehan in the boys 400 (51.05) and the San Marcos 4×100 relay team of Kyle Whitaker, Jesus Munoz, Brett Langolis and Kyle Tran (44.25).
Koehn said he’d been struggling come out of the turn in the 200, but it all came together on Friday and now he’s going to CIF as a league champion.
“I came of the blocks and it just felt good,” he said. “I could see I was in a good place in the race and I just had to hold on.”
Linehan held off San Marcos freshman Tyson Miller in the 400.
“Around 200 I started accelerating and wanted to get in position to win at the end,” said Linehan.
