Marauders' depth too much for Panthers, Grizzlies

Not much changed in the past four weeks since Granite Hills, Monache and Porterville track and field clashed at the City Championships on March 30.

In a double dual meet, the Marauders came away as all-around victors, just as they did in March. Only this time, they had to scrap and fight for it.

Thirteen Marauders won individual events — six of those earning multiple first-place medals — compared to four Panthers and two Grizzlies who won their individual events.

Monache’s girls dominated both the Panthers (115.5 - 16.5) and the Grizzlies (121 - 10) while the Marauder boys nicked Porterville (69-66) and pounded Granite (92-34).

“Our girls did really well,” Monache coach Brian Cruess said. “Everybody came and did what they were supposed to do. With the boys, we had a few things go wrong. But we competed and didn’t lose our composure.”

Monache junior Mercedes Alcantar led the way with three independent victories — one each in the 100-meter hurdles, the 300-meter hurdles and the high jump.

Miranda Peterson (400-meter dash and long jump), Danica Taylor (100-meter and 200-meter dashes) and Madison Lawley (discus throw and shot put) each collected two first-place finishes.

Darlin Hornsby won the 1600-meter run for the girls while Jorge Ceballos did the same for the boys, barely edging Porterville’s Jordan Reader. Ceballos also won the 3200-meter race, again edging Reader by two seconds.

“Jorge did a super job,” Cruess said. “He did great in the 3200-meters where he put on the kick at the end. (Reader) was closing in on him and he just turned it on and pulled away.”

Monache’s Lorenzo Avila was the only other male Marauder to win multiple events, in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Avila, a running back for the football team, filled in as the anchor for the 4x400-meter relay.

“Lorenzo came to us when we were struggling and looking for people to run,” Cruess said. “He said, ‘If you need more help, I can go.’ And I said, ‘It looks like we need ya.’”

By the time Avila grabbed his baton, Granite’s Tommy Brumfield was ahead by 10 paces and maintained the lead to the finish despite a late threat from Avila.

Brumfield also picked up an easy victory in the 400-meter dash — three seconds ahead of second-place Will Samarin, Porterville’s captain, who earned his personal best time of 55.12 seconds.

“He stepped it up big time for us,” Panthers coach Robert Steigleder said. “Zac Wilkins got two firsts for us as well.”

Samarin picked up another personal best of 2:11.75 to place first in the 800-meter run while Wilkins, a basketball player, dominated the long jump and the high jump.

Porterville’s Heidi Adams (triple jump), Robert Herrera (triple jump) and Diego Paniagua (discus throw) helped coup some points in the field events.

But the Panthers, who lost star runner Savannah Ertl to an ACL injury as well as others to academic ineligibilty, were shorthanded to begin with.

“We’re losing 10 points in the 400 and 800 (runs) with (Ertl’s absence),” Steigleder said. “Monache also gets nine points from the pole vault because no one else can do it. We’ve basically got an All-Star team not running for us right now.”

Jose Estudillo snagged the 300-meter hurdles, Andres Rubalcava won the 110-meter hurdles and Chris Knutson took first in the pole vault for Monache, but not much else went right for the Marauder boys.

“Guys were falling, getting hurt, one of our hurdlers fell when he was winning, our relay team got DQ’d and our jumper — who’s one of the better jumpers in the Valley — injured himself,” Cruess said. “I’m not making excuses — I’m just saying how proud I am that they continued to compete. I was real pleased with their effort.”

Rounding out for the girls, Daniela Lozano (800-meter run), Alysa Alvarez (3200-meter run) and Analysa Asuncion (pole vault) each won their events to tack on 15 more points.

Besides Brumfield’s contributions, Granite clinched first in one other event — the shot put, won by Andrew Lemus, who edged Paniagua by four inches.

Aside from the Grizzlies 4x400 relay victory, Monache pretty much had its way in the rest as the Marauder boys improved to 4-3 and the girls advanced to 5-2 overall. The Panthers split with their intra-city rivals and moved to 2-5 overall.

All three schools will finish up league play before preparing for the EYL meet next Wednesday, also at Granite Hills.