Benefield: Maria Carrillo High School building track powerhouse on young legs

Maria Carrillo High ran away with both the girls’ and boys’ North Bay League team track titles Friday night at Santa Rosa High School, dominating in a way that is starting to give rise to a feeling of déjà vu.

The Puma girls ran up 195 points. The next nearest competitor, Montgomery, had 87 points. On the boys’ side, the Pumas earned 168 points to second place Casa Grande’s 95.

“It was awesome,” Pumas track and field coach Greg Fogg said. “It was kind of what we expected but it got bigger than we expected. The boys have won the last six years. The girls, they have won 16 of the last 19 years.”

What’s better if you are Pumas fan, or worse if you are anybody else in the NBL, is they are incredibly young. Of the 11 individual titles won by Maria Carrillo (including double wins by Aimee Armstrong and Habibah Sanusi) only one was tallied by a senior: Amani Baker. The rest were won by underclassmen.

“That part of it is really exciting,” Fogg said. “We are already loaded for next year.”

“They are just dominant,” Santa Rosa coach Carrie Joseph said of the Pumas. “They have a lot of people and they have a lot of good people. They are going to be a real force for sure.”

Distance specialist Armstrong won both the 800- and 1,600-meter races in commanding fashion. The sophomore clocked in at 2 minutes, 20 seconds in the 800 and 5:14 in the 1,600.

“She is getting what she deserves,” Fogg said. “She put the work in.”

Junior Habibah Sanusi seemingly rewrites her own records every time she clears a hurdle, Fogg said.

The junior won the 100 high hurdles in 15.80 and the 300-meter low hurdles in 46.26 - almost three seconds faster than her nearest competitor. She won the shorter race by a full second.

Assata Polk, a junior, ran the 400 meters in 59.34, head of teammate Kiely Rowe who finished in 1:01.

In the 3,200-meters, junior Sydney Rivas won the 3,200 meters in 11:39, ahead of Jasmine Becker of Montgomery who clocked in at 11:58.

Senior Amani Baker won the long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 4 inches and was in the hunt on a number of other events, finishing second to Santa Rosa’s sprint wiz Kirsten Carter in both the 100- and 200-meter races. Baker ran the 100 in 12.41 to Carter’s 12.24 and finished the 200 in 25.60 to Carter’s meet record of 24.69. Last season at the North Coast Section Meet of Champions, Baker’s leap of 17 feet, 1 inch was an inch short of the distance needed to make the state meet.

Fogg guessed Baker won’t let that happen again. “She is pointed toward state,” he said.

On the boys’ side, it was all about the young guns from Carrillo. It was sophomore wins all around.

Severin Ramirez pulled off upset when he beat Montgomery’s ace sprinter Jaymes Tischbern in the 100-meter dash 11.09 to 11.10. It was the fastest Ramirez has gone all season, but not for Tischbern. The junior posted a 10.85 earlier this spring.

“On one level it wasn’t surprising but it was one of the coolest moments because he’s only a sophomore,” Fogg said. “It’s a little like Rocky Balboa because Tischbern has been dominating.”

Tischbern flipped the script on Ramirez in the 200 meters, besting his crosstown rival 22.34 to 22.57.

The Pumas’ Tyler VanArden beat teammate Demetrie Coffey to win the 800 meters in 50.45. Coffey finished in 51.24.

Carrillo’s Cooper Plattus won the pole vault with a clearance at 13 feet, shy of his season best of 13-10 but enough to nip Hunter Wagner of Montgomery for the title.

In the 800, Puma Will McCloud put in a personal-best 1:58 to beat Santa Rosa’s Langston Hay at the line. Hay ran his own PR, finishing 1:59.

While Carrillo athletes posted wins all over the track, the meet featured some sterling performances from loads of athletes.

Carter’s dominating performance for the Panthers was nearly expected. It seems the junior has the tools to win any event she sets her mind to. As it was Friday, she came in third in the discus with a throw of?97 feet, 7 inches; second in the shot put with a put of 33 feet, 8 inches, and of course she won the marquee sprint events, the 100 and 200, setting a meet record in the latter despite what Santa Rosa’s Joseph described as crazy winds Friday night.

“She’s just a specimen,” Fogg said.

Santa Rosa’s discus ace, sophomore Caitlin Grace, who was left stunned after failing to advance in her marquee event when she fouled three times at the prelims Wednesday, roared back in the shot put to break her own record not once but twice. She topped out at 34 feet,?4 inches to become NBL champ.

“She recovered and regrouped and that was really cool,” Joseph said. “It shows her grit.”

“Her coming back to win the shot put was amazing,” she said. “She PR’d on Wednesday and then again on Friday.”

Montgomery’s hurdle star Thomas Thomsen avenged his dismal performance in the 110-meter high hurdles in the prelims where the area’s best finished out of contention for Friday night’s final showdown. A last minute scratch allowed the senior back into the race where he pulled off personal best of 15.07 - well better than his earlier mark of 15.32.

In the 300-meter low hurdles, Santa Rosa sophomore Brayden Glascock took home the title with a 40.66.

“He’s a man-child,” Fogg said. “That is a pretty amazing athlete.”

In the 3,200 meters, Ukiah’s ace Robert Swoboda posted the second fastest time in the Redwood Empire this season at 9:32. Carrillo’s Scott Kruetzfeldt finished second in 9:58.

“That was an outstanding performance,” Joseph said of Swoboda’s win.

Santa Rosa senior Luca Mazzanti, the reigning Cross Country Runner of the Year, defended his 1,600-meter title, coming in at 4:26. He also finished third behind McCloud and Hay in the 800 meters in 1:59.

In the throws, it was all Windsor’s Ruben Mehler. The senior put the shot 42-6. Second place was Drake Barich of Casa Grande at 40-11. Mehler was even better in the discus, going 149-10. Second was Montgomery’s Brian Day with a hurl of 109-11.

The crowd of athletes will start to thin Saturday at the Redwood Empire Championships at Redwood High School. The top seven contenders from more than 30 participating schools earn a place at the NCS Meet of Championship on the Cal campus May 26-27. From there, the top three will go to the state meet in Clovis.

Catch them while you can.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield.