San Marcos Boys and Girls Win All-City Tri Meet Over Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos

The annual all-city tri meet brought athletes from Dos Pueblos, Santa Barbara, and San Marcos to Warkentin Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.

Among the standout performers, sophomore Avery Leck of San Marcos won all four events that she participated in, including the 100-meter dash, 100-meter hurdles, long jump, and high jump.  Her overall athleticism was on full display throughout the meet.

“It’s really fun to have rivals, and there’s a lot of energy when you are competing against Santa Barbara and Dos Pueblos at this meet,” Leck said. “It’s fun to be able to do all four events because they are really different from each other.”

In the 100-meter dash, Leck narrowly edged out Elina Stump of Santa Barbara High with a time of 12.60. Stump finished with a time of 12.62.

In the 200-meter dash it was Ava Carter of San Marcos who beat Stump to the finish line with a time of 26.50. Stump finished with a time of 26.53

On the boys’ side, Gabriel Runyen of Dos Pueblos dominated the sprints. He won the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.35 and the 200-meter with a time of 23.13. Evan Perez and David Ramirez of San Marcos finished second in those events respectively.

Perhaps the most exciting event of the meet was the boys 400-meter, where Andreas Dybdahl of Santa Barbara High narrowly edged out Andy Brennan and Andrew Gentry of Dos Pueblos with a time 50.56. Brennan finished with a time of 51.27 and Gentry clocked a time of 51.37.

Dybdahl has the top 1600-meter time in the state this season, but only competed in the 400-meter and 4X400 relay as he builds towards his late-season goals. He will compete in the 800-meter at the Arcadia Invitational on Saturday.

“I took it out a little too fast the first 200 meters and then the lactic [acid] hit me, so I was kind of struggling to keep the legs going the last 50 meters,” said Dybdah of the tight 400-meter race. “It was fun. It was a close race. I tried to go sub 50 seconds today, but it just wasn’t it, so I’ll try it again by the end of the season.”

In the high jump, sophomores TJ Deakyne and Henry Early both cleared 5-10 to take first and second place. Myles Shaddix of Dos Pueblos won the long jump with a distance of 21-09 and senior Tommy Fealy of San Marcos won the triple jump at 41-09.50.

In the throws, Malachi Johnston proved he was more than a standout football player by capturing first place in the shotput and discus with distances of 44-02 and 133-00 respectively.

On the girls side, Ava Allen of San Marcos took first place in the shootout with a distance of 31-03 and Krystal Valdez of Santa Barbara won the discuss with a throw of 82-04.

When it came to the overall team results the San Marcos boys and girls took first place. The Royals defeated the Dons 81-46 and the Chargers 89-38 on the girls’ side. On the boys’ side, San Marcos beat Santa Barbara 77-50 and Dos Pueblos 70-57.