Sports

Reader Submission: Small Band of Eagles Shine at Laguna Beach Invitational

Despite missing a large number of athletes who were on their confirmation retreat, Santa Margarita's track and field team experienced several bright spots on a partly cloudy day

(Sean Zeitler, assistant track and field coach at Santa Margarita High, submitted this article.)

If there is one thing that we have learned this season, it is to pay very little attention to the Doppler 5000 radar and plan for sunshine no matter what.

On what was supposed to be another rain-soaked day, the Eagles made it through the entire Laguna Beach Trophy Invitational on Saturday without a drop of rain and a number of personal bests under their belts.

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The Eagles brought a very small number of athletes to Laguna Beach High School as a large number of scoring Eagles were fulfilling their confirmation responsibilities and will pick back up this Thursday versus Orange Lutheran at Concordia University.  

The morning opened up with freshman Eric Abowd representing the Eagles in the boy’s frosh-soph 3200m. Running his first two-mile race with fresh legs, Eric dropped a 20 second P.R. (Personal Record) by running 10:46.97, placing him 15th overall.   Junior captain Brentano Giuliano had his finest track performance as an Eagle at the Laguna Beach Invite in both the mile and the two mile. In the first race of the day, Brentano hit his goal splits to a tee and ran the time that he was shooting for. Brentano’s 4:43.93 was more than a three second P.R. and good enough to place him seventh overall in a field of 22 athletes.

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In continuing his theme of double digit P.R.’s, Brentano came back at the end of the day and threw down a 12-second P.R. in the 3200m by running a very impressive 10:05.58. In total, Brentano has shaved more than 47 seconds off his best two mile time from the beginning of the season and looks to continue with this theme, as the team will count on Brentano for some much needed points this year in the two mile. 

In the hurdles, senior Sam Hewitt continued to improve vastly as he becomes more comfortable with the event that he picked up just last year. Despite a time that was not his best, Sam managed to place second overall at the varsity level in the 110HH by running 17.35 and looking more comfortable in the process. In one of the Eagles' brightest points of the day, Sam came back in the 300IH and tapped into what the Eagles have been waiting this year by running a very respectable 43.71. Doing so from lane 8, Sam cracked his way into the 43’s easily for the first time ever while looking very strong in the process. The Eagles will need Sam to continue his progress in the hurdles in hopes of making a statement as a team in the very tough Trinity League.  

Senior Jason Martinez made his presence felt with a huge lifetime best in the shot put with a big throw of 42’01”, his best throw by well over a foot. Jason’s continued improvement in the shot will be vital in the Eagles success this year and hopes are high that Jason can continue to add some distance to his shot put.  

With no pole vault pits at Laguna Beach High School, the Eagle vaulters headed south on P.C.H. to the ASICS Triton Invitational in San Clemente. Freshman pole vault standout Parker Curry continued to improve in the event with another big jump of 12’06”, inching even closer to that frosh-soph record of 12’10”. Coach Mandie Rowell’s vaulting trio of Tyler Frank, Mike Anderson, and Parker Curry will look to continue with their already successful year with high hopes of more dual meet event sweeps to add points for the team.  

Next up for the Eagles will be a huge test for the team as they take on Orange Lutheran on Thursday at Concordia University. The Eagles will need to bring their best performances all around in hopes of tallying their second win in league action. Good luck this Thursday Eagles.   See the following link for full results from the Laguna Beach Trophy Invitational:  http://rise.espn.go.com/track-and-xc/california/2011-track/Results/March/19-Laguna-Beach.aspx?pursuit=TrackAndXC   http://www.smhs.org/apps/news/show_news.jsp?REC_ID=182006&id=55


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