Championship performances at county meet

Jamison Jordan, Johnathan Cabral, Liberty Miller and Alex Morgan, please stand up and take a bow.

These four student-athletes were multievent individual winners on a bright, sunny afternoon at Moorpark High during last weekend’s Ventura County track and field championships.

Jordan, a senior at Rio Mesa, captured titles in the boys’ 100- and 200-meter events and was part of the Spartans’ 4x100 and 4x400 winning relay teams.

Simi Valley’s Miller, one of the state’s premier senior distance runners, finished first in the girls’ 1,600 and 3,200 races.

Cabral, a junior standout for the Agoura Chargers, blew past the field in the boys’ 110 and 300 hurdles. And Morgan, of Ventura, crushed the competition in the girls’ discus and shot put.

In the boys’ 100, Jordan and Oaks Christian junior Niko DiMartino staged a classic duel, with Jordan nipping a gold- Nike-wearing DiMartino at the finish line in an event-record 10.63 seconds.

“Having somebody right next to you pushes you a little bit,” said Jordan, whose time was a windlegal personal-best mark.

“I tend to tense up a little bit at the end of my race if someone is next to me, but I tried not to do that in this race, and it definitely helped.”

DiMartino, who won the boys’ long jump earlier in the afternoon, set his personal best in the 100 with a time of 10.65 seconds, which also eclipsed the previous meet record, set in 2004 by St. Bonaventure’s Terrail Lambert (10.77).

“I’m happy with my time,” DiMartino said. “But if I would have won, it would have been much better.”

Miller took an extra-large lead in the girls’ 1,600 and never looked back en route to claiming her second straight county crown.

“It was a bit scary because I usually just hang on to the pack, settle in and then at the end I move up,” Miller said. “But my coach wanted to use this strategy, and we gave it a try. . . .

“I just kind of went for it and held on as long as I could. It worked to my advantage, luckily.”

In finishing the mile race in 4 minutes, 54.57 seconds, the University of Washington-bound Miller came within a few steps of breaking Simi Valley graduate Anna Sperry’s meet record of 4:53.54, established in 2007.

Using a late kick to pull in front of Oak Park’s Melissa Skiba, Miller won the 3,200 in 10:45.76.

Skiba, who also finished second to Miller in the mile, has battled a hip strain throughout much of the season. She said she’s finally rounding into tip-top shape as the high-profile competitions come to the forefront.

“I’m excited about the rest of the year,” Skiba said. “Hopefully I can do really well now that I’m feeling healthy.”

Cabral, a nationally ranked hurdler, annihilated the two-yearold boys’ 110 record with a mark of 13.97 seconds. He later won the 300 hurdles in 38.35 seconds.

Morgan, a junior at Ventura, broke her own county record in the girls’ discus with a toss of 166 feet, 8 inches. The previous meet record, 161-8, was set by Thousand Oaks’ Margaret Giuffre in 2005.

In the boys’ 800 race, Westlake’s Sam DeMello set a meet record by finishing in 1:52.74.

The girls’ triple jump meet record traced back to 1987 before Pacifica’s Jazzalena Black leapt 37 feet, 3 inches to rewrite the record book.

Behind the Stark family, Oak Park owned the pole vault competitions.

Madison Stark won the girls’ event and tied a meet record by vaulting 11 feet, 6 inches. Her brother, Connor Stark, finished first in the boys’ pole vault (15 feet).

Another Oak Park star, Tayler Johnson, cruised to an easy victory in the girls’ 100 hurdles with a personal best time of 14.24 seconds.

“The hurdles come up so quick,” Johnson said. “The last one came up so fast that I just whacked it. I was just going so fast.”

Thousand Oaks, meanwhile, sprang to the top of the high jump standings.

Lancer Philip Hanley won the boys’ high jump with a mark of 6 feet, 4 inches, while Lydia French was victorious on the girls’ side with a 5-4 leap.

In one of the day’s most thrilling races, Oxnard’s Gustavo Mena chased down Royal’s twotime defending county champion Travis Edwards to win the boys’ 1,600 in 4:18.84.

Newbury Park big man Pat Smith came up large in the boys’ shot put, throwing 53 feet, 9 inches to edge Moorpark’s Travis Reese (51-5).

“We’d already gone up against each other, and I knew (Reese) threw over 50 feet,” Smith said. “I had to make sure everything was down right and make sure not to foul.”

Oaks Christian’s girls’ relay teams were on fire from the opening gun to the final whistle.

The Lady Lions opened the track portion of the event by setting a meet record in the 4x800 relay with a time of 9:56.47. Niki MacWhirter, Christina Garcia, Megan Huning and Amy Anderson contributed for OCHS.

The girls’ 4x800 was so competitive, in fact, that second-place Camarillo posted a mark of 9:56.61, the second-fastest time in meet history.

In the penultimate race of the evening, the Oaks Christian girls won the 4x400 relay in 4:00.65.

Newbury Park’s 4x800 boys’ relay squad, consisting of Sean Amoto, Nick Schellert, Sean Faught and Kendall Esparza captured its race in 8:26.27.

Oxnard’s girls claimed first place in the 4x100 relay (48.76).

Other individual girls’ winners were Rio Mesa’s Valexsia Droughn (100 in 11.93 seconds); Hanna Winter from La Reina (200 in 25.92); Megan Thompson of Newbury Park (400 in 58.00); Rio Mesa’s Anika Gasner (800 in 2:18.61); Kayla Batom of Oak Park (300 hurdles in 46.28); and Moorpark’s Nikoletta Georgalis (long jump at 17-04.25).

Remaining boys’ individual winners were Rio Mesa’s Steven Richards (400 in 48.91); Kevin Joeger of Thousand Oaks (3,200 in 9:16.58); Devon Hall of Rio Mesa (discus at 146-11); and Simi Valley’s Tyler Fields (triple jump at 43-00.25).