Distance Runners Power Rangers

NORWALK — After helping the Nordhoff High girls’ cross-country team win titles in the last three Southern Section championships, teammates Elaine Canchola and Bridie Hatch added another chapter to the Rangers’ superb distance tradition Saturday in the section’s divisional track and field finals at Cerritos College.

With Canchola winning the 1,600 and 3,200 meters and Hatch taking the 800 in the Division III meet, Nordhoff swept the distance races on its way to a second-place finish with 38 points.

St. Bernard of Playa del Rey, powered by 100 and 200 champion Malika Emondson, easily won the team title with 84 points.

The victories by Canchola, a junior, and Hatch, a senior, gave Nordhoff 30 points in the meet that awarded points on a 10-8-6-4-2-1 basis. The Rangers earned their other eight points when Hatch finished third in the 300 low hurdles--45 minutes after winning the 800--and senior teammate Terrah Chapin placed fifth in the 3,200.

“It would sure be nice if we got second,” Nordhoff Coach Ken Reeves said two hours before the meet was over. “That would be something.”

Canchola, the 1995 state Division III cross-country champion, continued the best track season of her young career by clocking a school record of 4 minutes 55.07 seconds in the 1,600 and a time of 10:50.08 in the 3,200.

“I liked the 1,600. The 3,200 wasn’t so great,” said Canchola, who moved to fourth on the all-time Ventura County list in the 1,600.

Canchola broke away from the field midway through the 3,200. In the 1,600, she pulled away from La Canada senior Sarah Ellis in the final 150 meters.

Ellis upset Canchola to win the 1996 state Division IV cross-country title, but she couldn’t pass her Saturday after pulling up to her rival’s shoulder midway through the final turn. Nonetheless, her second-place time of 4:56.57 lowered her previous school record of 4:58.60 set in the Arcadia Invitational on April 12.

Hatch, 13th in the state cross-country championships in November, pulled away from Makia Nelson of Brea Olinda in the homestretch of the 800 to clock a school record of 2:13.21 and then ran a season best of 44.29 to place third in the 300 hurdles. She was in second place for most of the race, but finished third after stutter-stepping badly at the seventh of eight hurdles.

Canchola, who had the fastest time of the meet in the 1,600, and Hatch each advanced to the Southern Section Masters Meet on Friday in two events by posting marks that ranked among the top nine from all four divisions.

Quartz Hill senior Michelle Perry qualified for the Masters Meet in three events, winning the 100 high hurdles in a wind-aided 13.87 and finishing third in the 100 and long jump with wind-aided marks of 11.55 and 18 feet 9 inches. But she was stunned when she was disqualified for a trail leg violation in the 300 hurdles after finishing second to Hawthorne’s Hannah Cooper, who ran 42.25.

“It didn’t feel right at all,” Perry said of the 300 hurdles, an event in which she finished third at the state championships last year. “I didn’t get out well and I didn’t get after [Cooper] so it was her race all the way to win.”

In addition to Perry, sophomore Heather Sickler of Camarillo, senior Andrea Neipp of Highland and freshman Sara Foster of Valencia also won titles in the Division I girls’ meet.

Sickler set a region record of 12-1 1/2 by clearing that height on her third--and final--attempt.

Sophomore Bridget Pearson of Hoover, who set the previous region record of 11-9 3/4 earlier this season, was second at 11-6.

The Brigham-Young bound Neipp won the 3,200 by nearly 40 seconds with a time of 10:25.57 and Foster cleared a personal best of 5-6 to win the high jump.

Liz Giltner of Chaminade, the defending state champion in the high jump, cleared a season best of 5-8 in that event, but finished second in the Division III competition. The loss prevented the Arizona-bound senior from winning her fourth consecutive Division III title.