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SPORTS June 30 - July 6, 2016
Next week: Fun summer games
CHS witnesses top athletes at Decathlon/Heptathlon BY ALONZO OROZCO The Santa Barbara Track Club/Carpinteria High School heptathlon and decathlon on June 24 and 25 grouped together possibly the best athletes ever to lap the rubber track surface at Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium. The event was an Olympic Trials qualifier, decathlon for men and heptathlon for women, but none of the athletes involved earned entry to the Olympic Trial set for July 2 and 3 in Eugene, Ore. Participating athletes Barbara Nwaba and Lindsey Lettow had already qualified for the trials and used the Carpinteria meet as a tune up. For others, it was a chance to compete in their first heptathlon and decathlon, as the schedule included a novice competition in which boys and girls from both Carpinteria and Oxnard entered. Both fields included some of the finest young athletes in the world. Carpinteria High School Track Assistant Coach Sarah Skipper, a member of Santa Barbara Track Club, participated in the heptathlon but was hampered with a hamstring injury so she competed in only the first day. SBTC’s Chari Hawkins won the heptathlon with 5,872 points, and Annie Kunz of Texas A&M came in second with 4,848 points. SBTC’s Tom Hopkins, the Princeton University record holder in the 400 meters, wowed the audience with a series
of successful attempts in the high jump competition. His scissor-styled approach put him over the bar on five different occasions, clearing over 1.82 meters, just short of six-feet. Hopkins, this time using the more popular Fosbury Flop technique, was unable to clear 1.85 meters in his three tries. Hopkins finished in first place overall with 7,485 points, winning the 100 meters with a time of 10.89 seconds and the long jump at 24 feet, 4 inches. Japheth Cato, the Big 10 record holder in the indoor heptathlon from the University of Wisconsin, tied for first in the high jump with Ventura College’s Ben Kirkwood, both clearing 2.06 meters (a little more than six-feet, seven inches). Cato finished second overall with 7,448 points. The Warrior duo of Chance Wright and Daniel Burquez finished one and two in the novice decathlon 400M with Pacifica’s Andres Juarez taking third in the field of three. Wright set the CHS record for decathlon with 4,336 points, 10th overall in the competition of 15 athletes. Fellow Warrior Daniel Burquez finished 11th with 3,851 points. The Decathlon Pole Vault also proved competitive, as Cato dueled against AllBig 12 entrant from Baylor, Henry Vildosola. Cato out jumped Vildosola with a
See MEET continued on page 16
BILL SWING PHOTOS
Barbara Nwaba, who will compete at the Olympic Trials July 2 and 3, competed in the long jump at the Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium hosted heptathlon last weekend.
New Carpinteria Valley Memorial Stadium records Men’s
Pole vault: Japheth Cato, 17’ ½”, Torq Labs Javelin: Chase Dalton, 181’ Decathlon: Tom Hopkins, 7,485 points, SB Track Club
Women’s
Long jump: 20’6”, Chari Hawkins, SB Track Club Javelin: Lindsay Lettow, 135’5”, SB Track Club Heptathlon: 5,872 points, Chari Hawkins, SB Track Club
High school
Decathlon: Chance Wright, 4,366 points
Tom Hopkins, winner of the decathlon, hurls the shot put in his wellbalanced victory.
Sarah Skipper, a CHS track coach and member of the Santa Barbara Track Club, joined the fierce heptathlon competition