Home › VC Preps › Baseball
Sprints are Rio Mesa's title ticket
Download this story as a podcast!
STORY TOOLS 
More from BaseballIt has been 18 years since Rio Mesa High's last girls' team championship in track and field.
Led by Valexsia Droughn, one of the fastest freshmen in the state, Rio Mesa figures to challenge Woodbridge for the Division II championship today at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut.
La Reina (Division IV girls), Oak Park (Division III girls), Oaks Christian and St. Bonaventure (Division IV boys) have enough high ranked individual qualifiers to make impacts on their respective team races.
The bulk of Rio Mesa's points will come in three events. Droughn and Mariyah Lee made the finals in the 100 and 200. Saraina Hedgepeth qualified in the 200 and will join her teammates on Rio Mesa's top-seeded 4x100 relay.
One person who could break up Rio Mesa's sprint points is Newbury Park's Raven Chavanne, who is coming off strong performances at the Division II Prelims.
In the Division II boys' meet, Moorpark's Maxwell Dyce has qualified in three events and Kevin Graf of Agoura is the No. 1 seed in the shot put.
Hurdler Sasha Blanchard, distance runner Sarah Pearson, half-miler Tara Blanchard and two relay teams hold the hopes of La Reina in the Division IV girls' team chase. The Regents could score well in seven events.
Other top area Division IV girls' qualifiers were St. Bonaventure's Janessa Rose, half-miler Rosanne Fleming and pole vaulter Lauren Radke of Oaks Christian and Malibu's Emani Truluck in three events.
Oak Park could score well in Division III girls with distance runners Courtney Lightfoot and Melissa Skiba, hurdler Kayla Batom, half-miler Kaycee Holcomb, pole vaulter Madison Stark and Tayler Johnson, one of the top seeds in the high jump and long jump.
Brittney Harper of Calabasas could win the girls' 200 and 400 titles.
In Division IV boys, Oaks Christian has the potential to win one relay and three individual events with sprinter Chris Owusu, long jumper Jules Sharpe and a 4x100 relay.
Contending with Oaks Christian will be St. Bonaventure, which has qualified sprinter Patrick Hall, weight thrower Vaughn Dotsy, James Short in the 200 and long jump and Blayne Lewis in the 400.
Sophomore Travis Edwards of Royal will be one of the favorites in the Division I boys' 1,600.
Ventura has qualified Ryan Rosales in the Division I boys' discus as well as Kristen Wilson and Alexandra Morgan in the girls' shot put and discus, respectively.
The top performers will advance to the Masters Meet on May 23 at Cerritos College.
(Requires free registration.)
Article discussions on this site are to support community debates of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Discussions should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We do not allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete threads and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Opinions are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.