West Valley track dominates Corning at home

THE LANDING: Sophomore Josh Maxwell prepares to land in the long jump pit after a successful take off on the launching pad. Maxwell has been participating in track since he was attending school at Happy Valley.

Soon after Wednesday's Northern Athletic League track and field dual meet between Corning and West Valley began, the attention turned to Friday night's West Valley/Chico Invite at Chico State.

That was the case in part because the Cardinals didn't have their complete squad and in part because the Eagles absolutely dominated right from the beginning. The West Valley boys (3-0 NAL) posted a 102-33 scoring advantage and their female teammates (3-0) did much of the same, beating Corning 105-13 including a pair races that were scratched from the schedule.

Wednesday was more about getting prepared for the 50-team West Valley/Chico Invite, one of the Northern Section's premier events on the schedule. Coach Scott Fairley, who runs the meet, said his athletes will be gunning for much better marks Friday.

"We put it on so we take a lot of pride and try to do well," Fairley said. "Every year we see a lot of PRs (personal records) from our team at that meet. It's the breaking-out meet."

Corning was overmatched, as most every West Valley opponent has been in team-scoring formats. On the girls side the Eagles won all but the pole vault and the Cardinals could only muster six scoring efforts, which come from top-three finishes. The Eagles' Paige Adkins was a big winner, taking victories in the long jump (15-5), triple jump (31-5.5), shot put (35-1) and discus (101-5). Cassie DeBonis won the 100-meter race (13.4 seconds), the 200 (27.75) and the high jump (5).

On the boys' side, the shot put was one of few events that brought about postseason ramifications. Three of the section's six best throwers did battle and the Eagles had another athlete toss his way into postseason consideration.

Zach Miller, who came in with the section's top mark at 53 feet, threw 49 feet to win Wednesday. Teammate Kobbie Harper, who came in fourth in the section at 48-3, tossed 46-1 for second and Tyler Stevenson pulled a minor surprise to take the third spot with a throw of 45-9, a mark that would put him ninth in the section. That also was good enough to pass Corning's Luis Piseno, who was sixth in the section coming in.

Miller has his work cut out for him to stay atop the section, let alone the NAL. Coming into Wednesday, five of the section's top six throws have come from NAL competitors.

"It puts a little pressure on you but pressure can be good sometimes, it helps you pull through. I try to approach it the same every time," said Miller, who is shorter than most of the top-level throwers in the section. "I think it's probably a disadvantage if anything. If you are bigger and have longer arms you can release it farther. I have to get stronger and have better technique than them."

Miller also won the discus at 139, better than Piseno's 133-8 and Stevenson's 124-4.

The hurdle events went to Taylor Lambert on the girls side and Wes Schanuth for the boys. Lambert was first in the 100 hurdles at 17.33 and in the 300 hurdles at 51.81. Schanuth needed 16.14 to win the 110 high hurdles and 43.92 to come in first in the 300 hurdles.

Corinne Hinkle was the champ in the 400 (1:04.56) just ahead of teammate Dani Hayward (1:04.91) and Peyton Peltier won the boys 400 in 53.28, as well as the 200 (23.45).

Hannah Dorman was the winner in the 800 for the West Valley girls (2:36.99) right ahead of Hinkle (2:37.06) and Corning's Jose Torres won the same distance in 2:06.94, almost three seconds ahead of West Valley's Forrest McBride.

In the 1,600, Corissa Storms (5:24.8) won for the Eagle girls and McBride (4:46.85) beat Torres by 11 seconds on the boys' side. McBride needed 11:27.13 to finish first in the 3,200 and there was no girls 3,200.

West Valley's Jake Morales won the boys' 100 (11.63) ahead of Corning's Kevin Landavazo (11.77).

Schanuth and the Cardinals' Blaine Glover tied for the long jump win at 19-10.5, Glover was the champ in the triple jump (40-4.5) ahead of West Valley's Tyler Low (39-1) and Stevenson was the highest jumper at 6 feet.

John Hollmer won the boys' pole vault as well for West Valley. Mattie Maloney earned the only Corning win for the girls' side, clearing 9-6, which is the second-best mark in the section.