CARPINTERIA — This time, Oak Park High was not caught off guard.

Maximizing its scoring potential, Oak Park leaned on its girls' distance runners and field event athletes Thursday at the Tri-Valley League track and field championships at Capinteria High.

La Reina, unbeaten in the dual-meet season, finished second behind Oak Park in the league finals. The two teams are co-champions. It was the first TVL track title for La Reina and eighth straight for Oak Park.

Oak Park won its third straight boys' championship with 17912 points. St. Bonaventure (93), owner of three of the five meet records set Thursday, and Oaks Christian (91) were second and third.

Ranked No. 1 in the county by The Star, La Reina upset Oak Park in a dual meet early in the season.

"La Reina whipped us up, slapped us around and beat us," said Oak Park coach Kevin Smith.

"They woke us up."

Both teams strategically placed their athletes throughout the meet. It was point and counterpoint as Oak Park and La Reina played against each other's strengths.

"This was as exciting a meet as I have seen," said Oak Park senior Courtney Lightfoot, who won the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, placed second in the 800 and was a member of the runner-up 4x400 relay. Lightfoot set a meet record in the girls' 3,200, winning with a time of 11 minutes, 1.78 seconds.

"La Reina has gotten so much better this year. I definitely wanted to get as many points as I could."

Lightfoot, long jump champion Taylor Johnson and hurdler Kayla Batom scored in four events for Oak Park.

What La Reina could not overcome was Oak Park's 50-8 point spread in three events (1,600, 3,200 and discus).

Two Blanchard sisters worked overtime for La Reina.

Sasha Blanchard won the 110 hurdles, with a meet record time of 14.67, and 300 hurdles as well as placing second in the 400 and long jump.

"I used to put a lot of stress on myself," said the La Reina High senior.

Switching her focus — and her technique — Blanchard has become one of the best girls' hurdlers in Ventura County history.

"I've taken a lighter edge to running," said Blanchard.

"My whole focus is to have as much fun as I can."

Tara Blanchard won the 400 and 800 titles, while Hanna Winter edged Johnson in the 100 as La Reina made its surge.

"Any points that I win helps out," said Tara Blanchard. "Oak Park is a very strong team."

At one stage, La Reina led, 110-105.

The Eagles dominated the boys' distance events behind 1,600 champion James Goldstein, 800 champion Doug Bettisworth and Garrison Gourdeau, who was runner-up in two events.

"We knew that St. Bonaventure was going to score a lot of points in the sprints and jumps," said Smith. "We had some kids come through in events that we were counting on."

Four other meet records were broken.

St. Bonaventure's Blayne Lewis set the TVL meet record in the boys' 400 in 49.87 and teammate James Short bettered the boys' 200 mark at 22.21. Both were members of the school's record-setting 4x100 relay (42.85).

Johnson broke a 16-year-old meet record in the girls' long jump with a winning mark of 17-9 1/2.

Oaks Christian's Jules Sharpe and Oak Park's Courtney Lightfoot just missed meet records.

Sharpe, who owns the area's best boys' high jump mark of 6-8, cleared 6-4 and missed on attempts at 6-6. The meet record is 6-4 3/4.

"I was thinking of the record," said Sharpe, who has routinely elevated over 6-4 or better this season.