June 3, 2005

Evergreen Sports

Evergreen resident Khrystal Carter sets two CCS track records

Earns top time in nation for 100-meter performance

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

Evergreen resident Khrystal Carter is now a part of the record books after breaking a pair of Central Coast Section Track and Field Finals time records on May 27.

Valley Christian sprinter and Evergreen resident Khrystal Carter stays ahead of the pack during the 100-meter dash at the CCS Finals on May 27. Carter broke the CCS Finals record for the 100-meter with a time of 11.57, also setting the 2005 national mark in track. Photo by Amanda Brittingham

Carter, a junior at Valley Christian, entered the CCS Finals at Los Gatos High with high hopes. She walked away an individual champion—and record-breaker—in both the girls’ 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash.

Carter will now move on to the CIF State meet, held in Sacramento on June 3 and 4, where she is ranked first in the state in the 100-meter and second in the 200-meter.

Needless to say, Carter, who trained extensively in the summer to improve her sprints, was pleased with the results.
“I was just excited about the races and I felt so relaxed in them,” Carter said. “…All the work paid off. All the stuff I did in the summer [of 2004]—it had a purpose.”

In both races, Carter broke the CCS Finals records. Her 11.57 time in the 100-meter event broke the previous record of 11.84 set in 2000. Her time in the 100-meter event also set the top national time for 2005.

In the 200-meter event, Carter broke the previous record of 23.92, set in 1999, by running a time of 23.69 to claim first place as well. Cater said she came into the event focused and eager to face the best in CCS.

“I really wanted to run an 11.5,” Carter said of her performance in the 100-meter. “I just wanted to set a personal record basically, whether it was an 11.6 or an 11.5.”

In addition to her individual feats at the CCS Finals, Carter was also a part of the 4 x 100-meter relay team that finished first with a time of 47.82. Along with teammates Jordan Apgar, Dahlys Marshall and Kristen Houp, Carter helped beat out second-place finisher Mt. Pleasant by four-one-hundredths of a second to claim first place.

“It was our best time and our handoffs were smooth,” Carter said. “It was a good day for us.”

With the CCS Finals now in the rearview mirror and the California Interscholastic Federation State meet slated to take place June 3 and 4 at Sacramento City College, Carter said she is as focused as ever.

After concentrating on technique and other aspects of sprinting earlier in the season, Carter and Valley Christian Head Coach Greg Marshall are now sharpening other areas of her performance. And Carter plans to get plenty of rest for the competition in Sacramento.

“In our peak area of training, we’re really focused on speed now, whereas earlier in the season we were focused on the technical side of racing,” Marshall said. “Her start needed some work and some other things as well. We’re continually working to refine things.”

While Marshall has helped Carter progress in various aspects of her game, he readily admits that a week of training between CCS Finals and the state meet isn’t enough time to make significant progress in improving her time. At this point, staying healthy and maintaining the level Carter is achieving now is the key ingredient to success.

“Right now, what’s in the tank is in the tank,” Marshall said. “…We don’t try to do too much. There’s nothing I can do to make Khrystal instantly faster.”

For Carter’s mother, Carmen, seeing her youngest daughter achieve yearlong goals and break local and national records has made being a spectator at the events a pleasurable experience.

“I was ecstatic,” said Carmen Carter. “In your wildest dreams, you never think this could happen.”

Hawks soar to back-to-back titles

By Hal Nunn
Special to the Times

Overshadowed by the Oakland Bears in regular season play and by the San Jose Junior Sharks in the NORCAL playoffs, the Santa Clara Blackhawks rose to the occasion in crunch time to go undefeated in the California Amateur
Hockey Association tournament.

The Blackhawks, Midget 18U A, won the state championship in a tense, 3-2 battle with the Southern California Amateur Hockey Association champion, Valencia Express.

Eric Fruen, Billy Kiernan and Kyle Yedlicka were the goal-scoring heroes in the championship game, but the scoring was spread throughout the line-up, with Santa Clara’s nine points coming from nine different players.
In addition to the three goals, Kevin O’Brien, Phillip Wong, Nick Costa, Shane Baxley, Patrick Castagna and Mitch Venosta assisted on the goals. Goaltender Willie Matthews was at the top of his game, making 23 saves, including five tough stops during a frenzied final 1:37.

The Blackhawks got an early jump on the Express when Fruen scored on a top-shelf breakaway at the 13:30 mark to draw first blood. But Valencia responded quickly with a rebound goal on a 2-on-2 rush at 10:43 to knot the game at 1 – 1.

The Blackhawks regained their lead on a bang-bang goal from Kiernan at 2:11. After three Express skaters collided in the corner, Kiernan shot the puck in behind the net and then broke for the goal. Nick Costa ran down the loose puck and immediately sent a drop pass out front that Kiernan got to first by going airborne to ram home the one-timer.

After a tense and scoreless second period, Santa Clara took advantage of the fresh ice early in the third period, with a quick strike. After a Venosta forecheck resulted in a turnover, Castagna eventually gained control at the side of the net.

Castagna’s centering feed was blocked right back at him, so he took a shot at the net himself. The shot was saved, but the rebound dropped to the ice and Yedlicka banged it home at 14:10 to extend the Blackhawks’ lead to 3 – 1.

The Blackhawks’ cushion was narrowed 2:14 later when Valencia scored on a power play. The Blackhawks’ defense then tightened up and put the clamps on the Express for most of the rest of the third period. But with the game on the line, Valencia began to get the puck in on goalie Matthews.

At 1:37, Matthews stopped a hard slapshot, but the rebound spun off to the open side of the net, requiring a lightning-quick, side-to-side move to deny the rebound chance. Matthews then came up with two more huge saves from point-blank range at 1:14.

But the Blackhawks were forced to take a penalty during that sequence, giving the Express 1:11 of power play time in which to score. A big face-off win by Castagna followed, allowing Shaun Pienkos to ice the puck.

The Hawks then did a nice job to pester the power play unit and run out the clock to claim their second consecutive, CAHA Midget-A banner.

Santa Clara earned a spot in the championship game by sweeping their opponents in convincing fashion in round-robin play. The Blackhawks opened the tournament by trouncing this same Valencia club, 8 – 2.

They followed that victory up by knocking off the Bakersfield Dragons, 4 – 1. Santa Clara then avenged their NORCAL championship, overtime shootout loss to the San Jose Jr. Sharks with a dominating, 8 – 1 performance.

Mt. Pleasant girls take first place in CCS Track Finals with 52 points

Cardinal and Raider athletes qualify for state

By Diego Abeloos
Sports Writer

Mt. Pleasant’s Vashti Thomas and Stella Dugall helped the Cardinals girls’ track and field squad to a 52-point first-place win at the Central Coast Section track finals on May 27 at Los Gatos High.

The two athletes played a pivotal role in capturing Mt. Pleasant’s CCS girls’ track title, with Thomas finishing first in the 100-meter hurdles event with a 14.70 time and Dugall finishing right behind her with a second place time of 15.02.

“I thought for the most part that they did well,” said Mt. Pleasant Assistant Coach Jamal Elmidge of Thomas and Dugall. “We’re in a position right now where they are just young and they’re learning how to compete.”

Mt. Pleasant also saw a successful run in the 4 x 100-meter relay, finishing second with a time of 47.82. In the 4 x 400-meter relay, the Cardinals took a first-place finish with a time of 3:49.90, nearly three seconds ahead of second-place finisher Archbishop Mitty. The top three finishers at CCS finals will head to the California Interscholastic Federation State meet June 3 and 4 at Sacramento City College.

In the girls’ 400-meter dash, Mt. Pleasant saw one of its sprinters, Diedre Pettigrue, finish sixth with a time of 1:00.80. The only other Cardinal sprinter in the event, Marshay Brown, got a disqualification at the start of the race.

The Cardinals capped their successful run at CCS finals with a second-place finish from Jeneba Tarmoh in the 200-meter dash, while Brown finished the race in eighth place with a time of 26.13. Tarmoh finished with a time of 24.04, second only to Valley Christian’s Khrystal Carter, an Evergreen resident, who broke the 200-meter dash record for CCS finals with a run of 23.69.

The Mt. Pleasant girls’ squad also saw one of its field event athletes, Monica Gomez, qualify for the state meet in the shot put, hurling a throw of 39 feet 4-inches to finish third.

In the long jump, Dugall finished sixth with a jump of 17 feet and 5.5 inches, a personal record, while also finishing seventh in the triple jump with a distance of 37 feet and 3.5 inches. Thomas finished right behind Dugall in the triple jump, getting eighth place with a distance of 35 feet and 11 inches.

“Stella Dugall has been coming along real well,” Elmidge said. “These past couple of weeks, she’s been really progressing with the triple jump as well as the long jump. I’m really pleased with where we’re at in terms of how they’re developing. We have three more years with Vashti and two more years with Stella. Both of them are new at track, so for them to be out competing in their first full year, they’re doing well.”

Silver Creek
Silver Creek saw one of its’ own qualify for the CIF State meet as well in Justin Ta, who finished second in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles with a time of 14.52. Along with the finish at the 110-meter hurdles, Ta also qualified for the state meet in the 300-meter hurdles, finishing third with a time of 38.93. Ta was the only male participant for the Raiders at the CCS finals to finish in the top three in any event.

“Obviously it’s not as clean a race as he had in the semifinals, but he did a great job,” said Silver Creek Head Coach Chuck Bean of Ta’s performance in the 110-meter hurdles. “He faded back a little bit on the sophomore kid from Los Altos, Eric Hersey, and caught him at the seventh (hurdle) but was sort of a little off-balance coming off the seventh hurdle and Hersey caught him back. He ran a personal best today and competed super hard.”

On the girls’ side, Silver Creek sprinter Stephanie Eckels narrowly missed qualifying for the state meet, finishing fourth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.42. Jefferson’s Lashanda Worthy finished just ahead of Eckels to qualify with a time of 12.39. Eckels finished sixth in her only other event at CCS finals, getting a time of 25.70 in the 200-meter dash.

However, Silver Creek will still have representation at the state meet in Sacramento, as Sharrell Smith finished third in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 45.93, only two-one-hundredths of a second ahead of the fourth-place finisher, Cupertino’s Stacie Boyle.

“Sharrell and Stephanie are seniors, so we’ll miss them next year,” Bean said. “Sharrell is a tremendous talent … As far as our team, this is sort of a down year in terms of our performance (boys 4-2 record, girls 3-3), but we also have the best group of frosh/soph athletes that we’ve had since I’ve been at Silver Creek. So, next year we’ll be back up and we’ll be pretty good.”

Evergreen Valley
For the Evergreen Valley Cougars, success during the regular season and at the Blossom Valley Athletic League finals didn’t translate at the CCS finals.

For the girls’ team, Golde Ibia was the school’s lone representative at the finals, finishing seventh in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.65. Ibia said she was prepared, but nervous, upon entering the competition.

“I was kind of nervous because they had a lot of good people there,” Ibia said. “I was just hoping that I would be able to make it overall, maybe get top three and be able to get down to the state meet.”

The boys’ squad also saw its’ chances of a state meet bid disappear, with the Cougars’ 4 x 100-meter relay team finishing sixth in the event with a time of 43.26. Brian San Agustin, part of the 4 x 100-team, which also includes Andy Offorjebe, Matt Nelms and Jorge Gonzalez, said difficulties during handoffs throughout the race contributed to the team’s sixth-place finish.

“The first pass, I couldn’t catch the second leg, but we managed to get it off,” San Agustin said. “Our second pass, we only did alright. It’s not something that we do often. Usually it’s perfect.”