Eagles soar in tri-meet

Rick Devereux

Estancia High Coach Steve Crenshaw relies on Jason Johnston to carry

the team. Johnston competes in the 110 and 300 hurdles, as well as

the triple and long jumps.

“J.J. by himself puts us in a position to win every meet,”

Crenshaw said before Thursday’s tri-meet against Costa Mesa and

Orange at Orange Coast College.

But what happens if Johnston doesn’t win four events? It turns out

the senior’s OK day is still better than most everyone else’s good

days.

“J.J. had an OK day. Overall, I’m happy,” Crenshaw said after

Estancia beat Costa Mesa, 87-36, and Orange, 62-55.

Johnston won the triple and long jumps and blew away the

competition in the 110 hurdles, as well as finish a hair behind first

in the 300 hurdles. Not bad for an “OK day.”

Johnston started the day with the 110 hurdles, finishing with a

15.42 time. Second didn’t finish until almost three seconds later at

18.18. But Johnston’s most impressive finish might have been the only

event he didn’t win. He got off to a slow start in the 300 hurdles,

but pushed hard to finish .01 behind the winner.

But Johnston wasn’t the only Eagle producing for Estancia. Nic

Koreerat also had three firsts. The senior took gold in the 100 and

200 and was a member of the winning 400 relay team.

“I think everybody pretty much did what they’re expected to do,”

Crenshaw said.

The throwing events were dominated by Costa Mesa. Senior Qualic

Vargas impressed his coaches with a first-place 43-1 1/2 toss in the

shot put and an 162-2 throw for the discus that beat the nearest

opponent by over 50 feet.

“I think you’ve got to look at Qualic Vargas as a nice surprise,”

Costa Mesa Coach Glenn Mitchell said. “He threw the discus 162 feet

or something. That is an excellent throw. He’s only been throwing for

about a month and a half.”

The three-team meet was a first for all of the schools, but it

didn’t create any problems for the competitors.

“These three schools made it a good meet,” Mitchell said. “We’re

stronger in the girls than we are in the boys. Estancia’s stronger in

the boys than they are in the girls. Orange is strong in the

distance. We all compliment each other perfectly for this meet so it

made it a nice well-rounded meet. I’m real pleased with the way it

turned out.”

“Overall we did what we had to do to win the meet against both of

them,” Crenshaw said. “We still have some things we need to work on.

But we have a shot at least a share of the league.”