Serra League Finals
St. John Bosco 2003 Co-Serra League Champions
It was the final time the 2003 track and field team would
compete together as a whole. Some would move onto CIF competition,
others would end their season, hopefully on a high note. Despite
each individual's outcome it was still up to each team member
to combine their efforts into one final push at a share of
the Serra League title. Santa Margarita had defeated the Braves
about a month earlier in another classic dual meet, and now
the Braves had "upset" in mind. No one was aware
of just how big an upset was about to transpire.
The first event of the day was the 4x100 meter relay. Servite
was the favorite with the Braves posting a heads up victory
over Santa Margarita, but Margarita holding the faster time
of the two squads. Bosco's team included freshman Craig Williams,
senior Joe Cowan, freshman Brandon Johnson, and senior Roy
Alugbue. Williams got out to a blazing start as he handed to
Cowan who put the Braves ahead. Servite's third runner had
a huge leg for his team passing up the field and hading off
to a sensational sprinter in Matt Slater. Alugbue took the
baton from Johnson and brought his team home in second place
with a seasonal best of 42.86. Helping the Braves was Margarita's
DQ in the event earning themselves zero points.
The 1600m was the next critical event pitting the Braves and
Eagles head to head. Senior Anthony Martinez had the fastest
returning time and fastest qualifying time, but the Eagles
Mike Powers had a faster overall PR. Through three laps it
was Martinez, Powers, and junior Luis Uribe for the Braves.
With 200m left in the race Powers turned on a blistering kick
with Martinez following suit. With 30 meters to go Martinez
found it in himself to make one last surge and went by Powers
for the win. Uribe was 3rd and sophomore Randy Skillens was
5th earning the Braves 13 valuable points.
Unexpected points came in the 110 high hurdles as sophomore
Emiliano Uranga finished a very strong 3rd place to earn four
points for his team. Uranga's time of 16.55 places him as the
top returnee for next year!
Joe Cowan put his talents on the line against rival Jeff Jacobs
and although Joe had the faster PR for the season he had never
beat Jacobs heads up. Running even through 200m the race could
have gone either way. On this day it was Cowan proving stronger
as he pulled away with 20 meters to go to handle Jacobs and
take the league title!
More valuable points would be scored in the 100m as Alugbue
and Williams teamed up once again. Alugbue finished in the
runner-up spot in a personal best of 10.94, while Williams
finished in a freshman record 11.20 good enough for the 4th
spot. More importantly for the team battle the Braves outscored
the Eagles 8-1.
Martinez would come back in his 2nd race of the day as would
Uribe to challenge for the 800m league title. Uribe had posted
a lifetime best of 1:57.61 in his prelim heat and was looking
to duplicate that performance. At the gun it was Uribe who
took control with the pack in very tight contention. With 200m
to go the defending league champion Alex Caudana took the lead
and would not relent. Martinez, who posted a lifetime best
of 1:59.18 finished second and Uribe finished a disappointing
but helpful 3rd. Junior Mahesh Gandhi ran well enough for a
5th place finish adding to the Braves point total for that
event.
Cowan would appear in his 3rd race of the day as he took the
300 hurdle crown in "easy" fashion.
In the 200m the Braves would once again rack up valuable points
to help their cause. Alugbue who has found tremendous speed
this season had another coming out party here as he blazed
a 22.00 for the runner up spot. Cowan ran well enough to place
4th helping his team total 8 points in that event.
The Braves would use a slew of runners in the 3200m to help
earn points. Martinez, appearing in his 3rd race of the day,
took 3rd place, Skillens ran a strong race to finish 4th, while
Junior Ephraim Barrios helped his team in finishing 5th.
By this time in the meet the winner had been decided. All
that was left was for the Braves 4x400 team to qualify for
CIF. Running without Cowan the team of junior Thomas Geil,
Gandhi, Uribe, and Johnson blazed to a seasonal best 3:26.75
to capture the runner-up spot for their team!
The field events saw more of the same as many Braves scored
in various events to help their team. The high jump saw 4 Braves
take the top 5 scoring positions. Once again it was Alugbue
defending his high jump crown soaring to a 6-4 clearance. New
comer Chris Swan would place second in a leap of 6-0.5. While
brother Troy Swan would place 4th with a leap of 5-10. Senior
valedictorian Daniel Navar would have a huge PR clearance of
5-8 to secure more points for his team!
In the long jump the Swan brothers would team up with junior
Matt Kaufman to secure 9 points. Troy leaped to a PR of 21-4
to take the runner up spot and advance to CIF. Troy Swan and
Kaufman would team up again in the triple jump to earn 6 points
for their team. Both athletes would leap to PR's. Swan had
a leap of 41-0 while Kaufman PR'd to 40-0
The pole vault saw a lone Brave earn all league honors and
a CIF spot, as senior Kevin Roberts jumped 13-5 to take the
runner up spot.
In the end all the Braves stepped up big and bullied the competition.
Final scores: St. John Bosco 121, Santa Margarita 81, Servite
53, Mater Dei 40, Bishop Amat 29. It was the second year in
a row that the Braves earned a share of the Serra League Track
and Field title and the sixth league title for Coach Tim McIntosh
to go along with his eleven cross country league titles! |
