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Photo by Eric Engman

Photo by Eric Engman

It seemed fitting that the last all-schools track and field meet of the regular season occurred at Lathrop High School on a 65-degree, sunny and windless Saturday. It was a stark contrast from three weeks ago, when the first meet took place at West Valley on a 30-degree, snowy and windy Friday afternoon.

There were, though, more of the cold, snowy days this season than the sunny, warm ones and the cold weather reduced the regular season. Two half-meets were scheduled in April but canceled by weather conditions.

So, Saturday’s meet offered a personal gauge for each athlete as much as it did a final competitive tune-up for the Region VI Championships this Friday and Saturday at Lathrop.

West Valley senior Crystal Pitney won the girls 3,200-meter run in the cold season-opener, and under the sun on Saturday, she dominated the 1,600 in 5 minutes, 19.06 seconds. The next closest runner, North Pole’s Christi Schmidtz, finished in 5:37.57.

Pitney, a Colorado State University recruit, sees herself, and many of the athletes in the region, in a build-up stage because the adverse weather shortened the season and affected training.

“I think that I’ve been training really hard,” she said, “and I don’t feel my races really have reflected that much because we haven’t had many races and it takes a couple of meets to build up, and I think we’re in that building-up stage.

“It, coincidentally, falls the week before the regionals, but that’s all right. I’m confident with my training and I’ve been injury free, which is the best thing in the world.”

West Valley collected the girls team title Saturday with 167.50 points in the two-day regular-season finale. The Wolfpack were aided Lorraine Knoxson’s hurdles sweep — 18.05 seconds in the 100 and 55.39 in the 300; Kayla Teslow’s 2:25.73 victory in the 800 and the winning 4x400 relay (4:31.62).

Lathrop claimed the boys honor with 112, edging North Pole by four points. Lathrop was boosted by four victories Saturday — Travis Watkins in the 400 (54.91 seconds), Zachariah Ginn in the 1,600 (4:54.81), and two relays, the 4x200 in 1:37.93 and the 4x100 in 47.09.

Ben Gallegos won the 110-meter boys hurdles in every meet this year, posting a season-best time of 16.16 on Saturday. Heading into the region meet, though, the junior home school student doesn’t see his pace and training at where he wants them to be.

“I think I could be a lot better, but this short training season really messed us up,” Gallegos, who practices with North Pole, said, “but I think that with the length of time (season) we’ve had, I think I’m doing pretty good.”

Lathrop junior Rosemary Hanson shared a similar sentiment about the girls 400 dash, which she won Saturday in 1:05.60, aided by an exhausting sprint a few meters from the finish line.

“I think that I’m as high as I could be, given that we’ve had like two meets, a different coach this year and a lot of different training stuff,” Hanson said. “So, it’s really been a good experience for everyone.”

Like Gallegos, Dane Ebanez was dominant in one of his events, as he crossed the finish line first in every boys 100 dash in the Interior this season. The North Pole junior posted a time of 11.47 on Saturday, but he sees room for improvement for the postseason meets. Lathrop is also playing host to the state meet on May 23-24.

Ebanez is vying for an 11.2 or faster time.

“I know I had a slow start today,” he said, “but come regionals, I think I’ll move on to state and hopefully, I’ll get down to that 11.2 or 11.1.

“I’ve got to try to focus, move my feet faster out of the blocks, I’ve got to be explosive, I’ve got to jump out and I’ve got to anticipate. The timing has got to be right.”

A victory in the boys 300 hurdles showed Delta Junction’s Logan Schiler that the timing was right to change his spring sport from baseball to track and field.

Schiler, who won in 42.74 after outpacing Gallegos near the end of the race, had not competed in track since the seventh grade and until this season, had never raced in the hurdles.

“I play basketball, too, and I’m a pretty good jumper, and it (hurdles) seemed like fun,” he said, “but once I got into it, I realized it wasn’t about jumping. It’s all about form ... you don’t have to jump high to run the hurdles.”

Speed helps, as does being challenged during the race.

“I could hear Ben right behind me the whole way, making the hurdles right behind me,” Schiler said. “It makes you run faster.”

Frustration can do that, too.

There was a false start in the second heat of the boys 100, and North Pole senior Josh Erikson didn’t hear his teammates or people in the audience telling him to stop. Erikson instead bolted full blast down the straightway and crossed the finish line before he turned around and realized the five other sprinters had returned to the starting line.

He ended up placing fourth in the restarted heat in 12.08.

Later in the afternoon, Erikson outsprinted Patriots teammate Todd McCormick and Lathrop’s Travis Watkins near the end of the 200 to win in 24.02 seconds. Watkins came in at 24.20 and McCormick at 24.21.

“When I got to the finish line, I was focusing on leaning in,” Erikson said. “I had felt embarrassed in the 100; I looked like an idiot. In the second one (restart), I was burned out.

“I was ready for this (200). I just said let’s get it over with, this is the last race.”

Erikson also won the long jump with an attempt of 19 feet, 1 3/4 inches.