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The Ridgewood girls and Wesley Chapel boys foreshadow good seasons.
By JAMAL THALJI, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 2, 2002
NEW PORT RICHEY -- Track season is just getting started, but after Friday's Chasco Invitational, there already are some things you can take for granted.
Ridgewood's Jen Hayes and Pasco's Keymo Pearson are scoring machines. The Ridgewood girls will continue to dominate. And the Wesley Chapel boys are going to be very good.
So good, in fact, that the Wildcats won their first Chasco title on a cold, windy night even with some of the team's best athletes MIA, playing in tonight's regional basketball final.
The Wesley Chapel boys scored 1251/2 points over runner-up Ridgewood's 1131/2 and third-place Mitchell's 108. The Ridgewood girls won with 1691/2 points as River Ridge scored 81 to finish second and Wesley Chapel took third with 761/2.
"I thought the kids worked really hard and did a good job (against) good competition tonight," Wildcats coach Brian Colding said.
Wesley Chapel's Tim Davis won the discus (133 feet, 71/2 inches), Kurt Able the 1,600 meters (4:39.70). And the 4x100 relay of Chuwuka Ciayetin, Nick Carter, Grant Center and Aaron Dickler took first (46.19).
The Ridgewood girls were led by Hayes, who won the high jump (4-10), triple jump (31-81/4) and 100 high hurdles (16.54) and placed second in the long jump (15-101/2).
Also winning were teammates Crystal Phillips in the discus (108-11), Michelle Cotharin in the 800 (2:38.40) and the 4x400 relay of Jenna Mehltretter, Ashley Krupinski, Cotharin and Hayes (4:37.22).
Pearson won the high jump (6-4), long jump (19-5) and triple jump (40-1).
Ridgewood's Adamm Oliver set a school record in the shot put (50-5) while teammate Chris Vergnaud owned the 110 high hurdles (16.37) and 300 intermediate hurdles (42.59) and Robby Coghlan took control of the sprints, winning the 100 (11.42), 200 (23.32) and 400 (52.03).
Mitchell's Danny Sheehan won the 800 (2:07.74) and Jeff Masterson the 3,200 (10:06). They won the 4x800 (8:43) with Reggie Moise and Brandon Steiner.
The Zephyrhills 4x400 relay of Robert Yonkof, Richard Kazbor, Frank Fregoso and Jose Espinosa also won (3:40.96). Teammate Tiffany Tucker won the long jump (16-11/2) and 100 (12.99), edging Pasco's LaShawn Vaughns by a hundredth of a second. Vaughns won the 200 (27.33).
River Ridge's Emily Ollivier won the shot put (35-4). Danielle Coyle won the 1,600 (5:40) and Samantha Jacobsen the 3,200 (12:29) as well as the 4x800 (10:42) with Coyle, Dawn Conner and Christine MacAvoy.
Mitchell's Kalyn Kinnard won the 800 (105.5). Wesley Chapel's Angela Medvid won the 300 hurdles (52.01) and the 4x100 (54.00) with Jasmine Cabrera, Autumn Yanchunis and Kendall Smith.