Temecula School Track Records Set

Several school records were set during the Southwestern League Track and Field Finals.

The event brought Murrieta and Temecula schools together at Great Oak High School on Thursday to see which students would advance to the CIF-SS prelims.

Some athletes will advance to the the CIF-SS Finals at Cerritos College on May 21, then to the CIF Masters also at Cerritos College on May 27, and then to the CIF State Meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis on June 3-4.

's Zach Chimileski set the school's record for the mile, Bennett Harris set the school's record in the 800, Chrissy LaPierre set the girls record in the 800 and Tori Alemany set the record in the 200, said Martin Dinsenbacher, head coach at Chaparral High.

's record for the 800 was set by Tammy Kim at two minutes, 19 seconds, said Gary Polhill, the school's head girls track and field coach.

TVHS has the second-to-oldest track program in the area next to Elsinore High School.

Vista Murrieta boys ranked first in Division 1 with Murrieta Valley ranking fourth and Great Oak ranked ninth, according to the published CIF-Southern Section rankings.

The Great Oak girls squad is ranked #5 in the section as of this week, and coach Doug Soles couldn't be happier.

“Our biggest step-up, I would have to say, has to be hurdles,” said Soles at the conclusion of the meet.  “Martiesha Caines and Jade Miller, those two really stepped today and went 1-2 in the 100 hurdles and came back and went 1-4 in the 300 hurdles, and that was a really big turning point for us."

After all 16 events, Vista Murrieta came in first with 236 points, Great Oak took second with 139, Murrieta Valley came in third with 68, Chaparral followed with 24, then Temecula Valley with 13 and Murrieta Mesa with 8.

The best part of the meet was the spirit of competition it brought out in the students, Soles said.

“To see every single event on the track, our kids step up and go after it was huge,” Soles said. “I was totally psyched to see how many young kids we have step up today, and it was a total team effort. If you look at the points, we didn’t dominate in any one area. We were just good all around.”

In 2010, Nike sponsored the first-ever Nike Track Nationals. Teams submitted top marks for their track and field athletes in various events. As the season progressed, the Broncos boys team was ranked first in the nation. Nike brought together many of the top teams to compete against one another last Summer in Oregon. Vista Murrieta won the national championship.

First place automatically qualifies for next Saturday’s CIF-Southern Section Prelims.  Second and third place have to meet a basic qualifying standard.

After that, there are also at-large berths for athletes who finished lower than third place but still met the qualifying standard.

The Division 1 Prelims will be hosted by Trabuco Hills High School in Mission Viejo.  Murrieta Mesa -- which is not part of the division -- will send its qualifying athletes to compete in the Division 3 Prelims hosted by Estancia High School in Costa Mesa.