False Hope Dashed for Valencia’s Felix

VALENCIA —  Wes Felix of Valencia High won’t be running in the boys’ 100-meter dash in the Southern Section Division II track and field preliminaries at Mt. San Antonio College on May 12.

That became clear during the Foothill League finals at College of the Canyons on Thursday when a check of the league’s bylaws determined that the results from the league finals would be the sole factor in qualifying for the preliminaries.

Felix, a junior, was disqualified for a false start in the league preliminaries on Monday, but he and his coaches hoped he would be allowed to run in the section preliminaries based on a vote by league coaches.

The league bylaws squashed that notion, but there was one big question left unanswered Thursday.

Did Felix and rival Tim Gregory of Hart really run 10.3 and 10.5 in the 100 and 21.5 and 21.6 in the 200 in a dual meet at Valencia last week?

Felix, a junior transfer from Overland High in Aurora, Colo., and Gregory, a sophomore, are both fine sprinters. But they failed to run as fast on Thursday on an all-weather track that is considered a faster surface than the dirt oval at Valencia.

Gregory won the 100 in 10.8 and Felix edged Gregory, 21.7-21.8, for the 200 title in the meet in which the top three finishers in each event automatically qualified for the Division II preliminaries.

“It didn’t really seem real,” Felix said when asked about the false start that he and Gregory both contend he didn’t commit. “It was the first time that I had ever [been called for a false start.]. . . . But stuff like this happens. It’s just one of those things.”

Felix will still be busy at the Division II preliminaries. He ran on teams that won the 1,600 relay in a school-record 3:24.2 and placed second in the 400 relay in 43.2.

Gregory also ran on teams that won the 400 relay in 42.9 and placed second in the 1,600 relay in 3:28.4.

Senior Brian Anderson of Burroughs ran 4:20.2 in the 1,600 to win his second consecutive title in that event and won his first championship in the 800 with a time of 1:55.5.

Senior Mark Whalen of Hart won the 110 high hurdles in 15.4 and the 300 intermediates in 41.0.

Junior Marissa Mike of Burroughs won her second consecutive title in the 100 with a time of 12.7 and placed first in the 200 in 26.2.

Freshman Whitney Russell of Hart won the girls’ 800 in 2:18.9 and the 1,600 in 5:29.2.

Senior Amy Yeager of Burroughs won her second consecutive titles in the shotput (34-0) and discus (103-0).