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Vista Murrieta Prevails in Southwestern League Boys Showdown with Rival Great Oak

Published by
DyeStat.com   Apr 26th 2018, 7:07am
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Parris Samaniego, Edgard Villa help Vista Murrieta atone for last years loss; Great Oak prevails in girls matchup

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

The pendulum in Southwestern League track and field has swung, but after Wednesday night, maybe it hasn’t swung as far as everyone thought.

Vista Murrieta’s boys track and field team showed it’s still a player on the elite scene after upsetting host Great Oak, 74-62, in the final league dual meet of the season in Temecula in a showdown involving two of the country’s top programs.

The Wolfpack did get the win on the girls’ side with an 86-50 victory.

Winners of consecutive CIF-State championships in 2015 and 2016, the Broncos don’t have the firepower they had during the Michael Norman years.

Great Oak, on the other hand, is considered by many to be a state-title contender June 2 in Clovis and has backed that sentiment up this season, most recently with a fifth consecutive boys grand sweepstakes title at Saturday’s 60th Mt. SAC Relays at El Camino College in Torrance.

But in a dual-meet situation anything can happen. And it did Wednesday.

Vista Murrieta coach Coley Candaele said he ran several projections on the meet and couldn’t find a way in which his team could get closer to Great Oak than six points.

“There were so many things that went our way,” he said.

Yet, as one of his athletes put it, things didn’t happen by accident.

“Last year was a very disappointing year for our team, in regards to losing to Great Oak and obviously, losing that league championship,” senior sprinter Parris Samaniego said of the Broncos’ 82-54 loss to the Wolfpack a year ago.

“So coming in today, all of us had the same mentality. All of us were just like, ‘Beat someone in a red uniform – whether it is fourth and you’re going to third, or second going into first.’”

Samaniego didn’t just talk. He supported his statement with four victories Wednesday – he ran the third leg of the winning 4x100 relay (41.78), won the 400 (49.96) over a fast-closing Fabian Bodden, won the 200 (21.54) and rallied the 4x400 relay team to a victory in the anchor leg, edging past Great Oak anchor Ethan Hemminger to give the Broncos the win in 3:22.57.

“We don’t go in with a ‘Let’s try to get second,’” Samaniego said. “We’re going to go 100 percent every time. You don’t race for second, and you don’t race for third.”

No, but in the case of Edgard Villa, playing for second didn’t hurt.

Villa was a catalyst for the Broncos, scoring the toughest points against the dominance of the Great Oak distance runners.

In the 1,600, Villa held off Great Oak senior Carlos Carvajal and his kick to win in 4:24.54. Carvajal ran 4:25.04.

By the time the 3,200 rolled around, Villa didn’t need a win – the Broncos were just three points away from clinching the victory. That was a good thing, too, as Carvajal never let go of control of that race and won in 9:15.21.

Villa and Great Oak’s Gabe Abbes battled for second in the final lap. Villa pushed ahead in the last 25 meters, getting ahead of Abbes – and lap traffic – to run a personal best by eight seconds in 9:16.43.

“I never yelled so hard for someone to get second place,” Candaele joked.

Instead of yielding 18 points to Great Oak in those races, Villa forced his way to scoring eight points, no matter how tiring it was.

“I just found an extra gear to kick as hard as I could,” Villa said.

Vista Murrieta sophomore Hunter Escorcia also got into the act and offered a name to watch for the future with wins in the 110 hurdles (15.26) and the 300 hurdles (40.27), which was another instance in which Bodden challenged hard before placing a close second at the finish line.

“I stuttered over the third-to-last and second-to-last hurdles, and that just motivated me to push through the last one,” Escorcia said. “I felt him on my side. My main goal and my main focus today was the team win.”

The other thorn in the side to Great Oak in the distances was an 800 win by Broncos junior Willie Coleman, who defeated both Chris Verdugo and Jacob Korgan to run 1:58.48.

“You guys need to get to know Willie Coleman, who went out there and put a time down in the (800) and went out there and won that,” Samaniego said. “Great Oak being the fantastic distance program they are, picking off any points with them is ridiculous.”

The Wolfpack got their share of event victories, too. Senior Jaime Navarro won the shot put (58-6.5) and discus (173-11) and led the Wolfpack to taking 17 of the available 18 points in throws. Senior CJ Stevenson, four days after opting out of the triple jump at Mt. SAC due to a knee injury – it was a precaution – won the long jump (23-5) and triple jump (45-0).

“We’ve got a good team and we know going into CIF that we’ve got to be on our game to win, so it’s a good wake-up call for us,” Great Oak coach Doug Soles said. “I think that we’re a big-meet team, and I think this is going to be something that will help us going into CIF Finals and going into State. …

“Vista ran a real good meet today,” he added. “They just wanted it more than we did.”

Great Oak’s girls stayed more to expectations in their victory. Sophomore Tori Gaitan won the 1,600 (4:54.31) and 3,200 (10:29.85) and junior Kristina Bong took the 100 (12.60) and 200 (25.22). Kolonnie Green won three events – the 400 (59.74), the 300 hurdles (46.23) and the high jump (5-2).

“It was going to be pretty close because Vista’s obviously very talented, but our team on the girls’ side obviously threw it together,” Green said. “I’m very happy with the outcome we had today.”

 



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