Castaneda advances

Chris Yemma

Ernesto “Tito” Castaneda huffed his way around the track the first

time, and turned it up two notches for the second lap.

The Estancia High junior’s second lap of the 800 meters was what

boosted him into the eighth spot of nine qualifiers at the CIF

Southern Section Division III track and field preliminaries at Gahr

High Saturday.

His nickname, “Tito”, was how he was listed in the track meet’s

official program, to his amusement, but his performance was anything

but comical.

The recently crowned Golden West League champion in 1,600 and

3,200, Castaneda passed up on the 1,600 in CIF to focus solely on the

two- and eight-lap races.

He hedged his bets, and the payoff was rewarding.

Saturday, he will be running in the 800 at the divisional finals

at Cerritos College following qualifying at the prelims.

“I’m usually tired right before the 800 because I run the

[1,600],” Castaneda said. “I’m not doing the [1,600] now. There’s a

lot of fast guys in that race.”

He rallied his way in the last lap of the 800 to qualify, but

Estancia distance coach Charlie Appell said he still had too much gas

left.

“You had too much left,” he told Castaneda following the event,

hoping to coax the best possible race out of him at the finals.

In the 3,200, however, the gas ran out, as Castaneda just missed

qualifying and finished in the 11th spot.

Fellow Eagles’ teammate, senior Bryce McKendry, will also be

representing Estancia at the finals, qualifying third in the long

jump with a leap of 21 feet, 3 1/2 inches.

A newcomer to track and field this season, McKendry placed second

at the Orange County championships in the long jump earlier this

season, and just recently won Golden West League titles in the high

and long jumps. He just missed the cut in the high jump Saturday with

a jump of 6-0 to land in the 10th position.

Senior Andrew Wong was the lone Corona del Mar boys qualifier,

jumping 42-3 in the triple jump for the sixth spot.

At the CIF Division IV preliminaries at Carpinteria, Sage Hill

junior Zach Chandy, the Orange County champion in the 400, qualified

first in both the 400 (49.37) and 200 (21.9) to advance to the

divisional finals at Cerritos.

At the CIF Division II preliminaries at Moorpark, Newport Harbor

junior Bo Taylor qualified first in the discus throw with a

personal-best 179-4, and second in the shot put (56-5 1/4 ), while

senior Trevor Theriot qualified eighth in the shot put (53-9 3/4 ).