Locals sparkle at So Cal championships

Mike Sciacca

Two Laguna Beach athletes established new city records and another

captured first place at last weekend’s Southern California Municipal

Athletic Track Championships at Gahr High in Cerritos.

The Laguna Beach team is coached by Fred Pichay and sponsored by the

city of Laguna Beach.

Taylor Weiss, coming off a second-place finish at the county meet,

took fourth place in the girls’ 94, 400-meter race in a time of 1:26.20.

That time was good for a new city record as it eclipsed the previous

record run of 1:29.60, set by Stephanie Kyle in 1987.

Weiss also was ninth in the 200-meter dash at 41.19.

Also setting a new city record was Grace Esslinger, whose time of

32.30 in the girls’ 91 200-meter dash -- which was good for eighth place

-- topped Ana Lisa Miller’s 1999 record time of 32.43.

Esslinger holds two other city records.

Stephanie Ross brought a first place finish home as she won the girls’

91 long jump title with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches.

She also won the recent county meet at 12-5.

Other local male athletes placing high at the championships were Jonah

Erickson who finished third in the Division 95 200-meter dash at 40.4;

Xavier Babudar who finished fourth in the Division 94 400-meter run at

1:24.4, and was ninth in the softball throw at 68-feet; Kelly Travis who

was third in the Division 93 400-meter run at 1:18.2; Christopher Bailey

who was third in the Division 92 high jump at 3-feet, 8 1/2-inches;

Crispin Collins who was sixth in the Division 90 200-meter dash at 31.0;

and Scott DeYoung who was fourth in the Division 89 400-meter run at

1:02.9, and 10th in the long jump at 13-9.

Local female athletes who placed high were Isabella O’Neil, who

finished seventh in the Division 94 long jump at 8-3, and Megan Robel who

was sixth overall in the Division 91 800-meter run with a time of 2:55.0.

Athletes are placed in a division according to the year they were

born.