Santa Margarita Wins Team Title

Amanda Shanklin has earned her share of individual track and field honors during her stay at Santa Margarita. But Shanklin experienced her first Southern Section team title Saturday, when the Eagles captured the Division II championship at Cerritos College.

“It’s so awesome,” Shanklin said. “I’ve waited four years for this day. We’re going to order our rings as soon as possible and get those shirts made. It was such a team thing. Everyone scored points here and points there, it just wasn’t one person.”

Santa Margarita scored 59 points, easily outdistancing second-place Woodbridge (44) and third-place Santa Ana Valley (38). The Eagles clinched the title with Meghan Atkinson’s third-place finish in the 200.

Shanklin won the 100 hurdles (14.67), earning the seventh qualifying spot at Friday’s Masters Meet at Cerritos College. Shanklin then came back to win the 300 hurdles (44.68), despite clipping the eighth hurdle with her back leg. Shanklin will also be competing in the triple jump next weekend, after grabbing the last qualifying spot with a mark of 37-5 1/2.

Shanklin opted not to compete in the long jump and use her fourth event to join the Eagles’ 1,600 relay team, which also took the last qualifying spot (3:56.73), breaking a school record in the process.

“We were really having a hard time deciding [whether to do the long jump] points wise and whether I wanted to go for 18 feet, which I’ve never done before,” Shanklin said. “But we decided it would be better for me do the 1,600 relay and make it a solid race for us.”

Woodbridge finished ahead of the Eagles in the final relay with a county-best time (3:56.48). In that race, Woodbridge senior Meryl Stone and Santa Ana Valley sophomore Crystal Davis got tangled up on the second leg, resulting in a disqualification for Santa Ana Valley, which had posted the top qualifying time in the preliminaries. The disqualification moved Woodbridge into second ahead of the Falcons.

Davis anchored Santa Ana Valley to a first-place finish in the 400 relay (48.34), which was the seventh-best qualifying time and bettered the Falcons’ county-best time in the event. Woodbridge was second (48.60) and earned the last qualifying spot.

Davis pulled away from Stone to win the 100 in 12.25, but finished out of the top nine automatic qualifying spots. Stone continued her dominance over Davis in the 200, winning the division title in 24.67, but she also missed an automatic qualifying berth by one position.

Santa Ana Valley’s Raven Hebert passed Atkinson in the final 100 meters to win the 400 in Division II (57.24). Atkinson wound up third in the division (57.62) and didn’t qualify. Laguna Hills senior Ashley Furst finished second in Division III (57.45) and got the final qualifying spot. Furst came back to win the 800 in her division (2:16.90), but missed qualifying.

University’s Jessica Howard smashed her lifetime best by nearly 10 seconds with a victory in the Division III 1,600 (5:02.80). Teammate Allyson Marquand won the 3,200 (10:56.21), which was the third-fastest time overall.

Edison freshman Rachael Ziemann won the high jump in Division I (5-8), which was the top mark on the day and equaled twin sister Bianca’s county-best mark. Bianca cleared 5-6 and was the second-best qualifier.

Mission Viejo’s Dana Bethel improved her personal-best in the 100 hurdles with a second-place finish in Division I (14.11). Bethel also finished second in the long jump (18-11 1/4), behind Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa (19-2).

Notes

Foothill’s Tynisia Edwards won the Division II triple jump (38-5 3/4) with the second-best jump of the day. Liz Morse of Corona del Mar improved her lifetime best in the 800 with a second-place finish in the Division II 800 (2:12.67), which was the third-best qualifying time behind Canyon Country Canyon’s Lauren Fleshman (2:11.05) and Long Beach Poly’s Kim Gildersleeve (2:11.66). . . . Long Beach Wilson, the co-defending state girls’ champion with Long Beach Poly, edged Riverside J.W. North, 72-68, for its second consecutive Division I title and third in four years.