NORWALK – He finished second in his two races.
Daniel Sun still got to raise a championship plaque.
Sun and Woodbridge for the second year in a row won the Division 2 team championship Saturday at the CIF-Southern Section Division Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College.
The Warriors won by two points, 47-45 over Colony of Ontario. Last year, they won the Division 2 title by 31 points. Woodbridge finished second in the CIF-SS track finals in 2013 and ’14.
“It’s amazing to win it two years in a row,” said Sun, a senior who finished second Saturday in the 110 and 300 hurdles and was on the Warriors’ third-place 1,600 relay team and sixth-place 400 relay squad.
The six points Woodbridge got in its final event, the 1,600 relay, which was won by Mission Viejo thanks in large part to a strong anchor leg from Brenden Schooler, was enough to give them their second-straight title.
PHOTOS: CIF-SS Finals slideshow
RESULTS: CIF Finals (boys and girls)
Mission Viejo finished fourth and Newport Harbor fifth in Division 2 team scoring. Sage Hill was second, behind Oaks Christian of Westlake Village, in Division 4. Esperanza was second and Servite third in Division 3, and Los Alamitos was fifth and Trabuco Hills sixth in Division 1.
It was a sunny and breezy day that produced many wind-aided marks.
Marina senior pole vaulter Jett Gordon cleared 17 feet, 2 inches to win the Division 2 title and set the CIF-SS Division 2 record.
Gordon bumped the bar on his first try at 17-2 and the bar fell. He bumped the bar again on the second attempt, but that time it did not fall.
“My first try at 17-2 definitely felt better than the first one,” Gordon said. “The first one, I grazed the bar and it came off. The second, I hit it more but it stayed up there. A little bit of skill and a little bit of luck, I guess.”
The Orange County and CIF-SS boys pole vault record is 17-6, achieved by Michael Woepse of Mater Dei in 20010. After clearing 17-2, Gordon made a couple of unsuccessful attempts at 17-7.
Gordon, a senior, will try 17-7 again at the CIF-SS Masters Meet, the qualifying meet for the CIF State Championships, on Friday or at the CIF State meet in two weeks.
“Not that 17-2 doesn’t fulfill the senior year,” Gordon said. “But 17-7 would put the cherry on top.”
Gordon was one of eight O.C. boys pole vaulters to advance to the Masters Meet at Cerritos College. The state meet is June 3 and 4 at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Chance Kuehnel of Sage Hill won the Division 4 high jump by clearing 6-feet 6 inches and won the Division 4 110 hurdles in a wind-aided 14.64. His teammate Alex Escalera was the division’s pole vault champion at 15-1.
Sean Lee of Trabuco Hills continued his standout sophomore season. He won the Division 1 high jump with a clearance of 6-11, 5 inches higher than the second-place finisher in the division. Lee, who set his personal high (7-0.25) this season, made three unsuccessful tries at 7-1.
Esperanza thrower Bronson Osborn was, as expected, outstanding. Osborn, a junior, won the Division 3 shot put and discus.
Osborn won the shot put with a toss of 67-2.75. That’s 4 feet short of his personal best of 71-7.25 set at the Mt. SAC Relays last month. His 187-7 hurl of the discus, although almost 17 feet shy of his best mark, was almost 12 feet better than the second-place finisher.
Esperanza’s depth at the throwing events was present. The Aztecs’ Clint Meyer and Jordan Ammann finished third and fourth, respectively, in the Division 3 shot put. Ammann was fourth in the discus.
Cole Smith of Newport Harbor was Division 2 champion in the shot put and finished second in the discus. Smith’s teammate, Michael Jarboe, was second in the Division 2 shot put.
Tesoro senior Michael Mitchell won the Division 2 long jump championship at 23-10. That’s one-half inch off his personal record he accomplished at the Mt. SAC Relays.
“I was looking for a 24-foot jump,” Mitchell said. “But 23-10 is almost as close as you can get so I’m happy with it.”
Mitchell is certain he can get to 24 over the next two weeks.
“I’ve been slowing down a little bit before I jump,” Mitchell said. “So if I keep my speed up through the board, I should be able to easily get to 24. That’s what I’m looking for.”
Sometimes at the CIF-SS meet, a personal record isn’t good enough to win or to even qualify for Masters. Mitchell was among the many for whom that was so Saturday.
In the 100, Mitchell ran a personal-best 10.73 that was not good enough to get him into the Masters.
San Clemente senior Connor Dunne, this season’s county leader in the 800, led through most of the Division 1 race. He was passed in the final feet by Great Oak of Temecula senior Isaac Cortes and finished second.
Mission Viejo junior Quinn Williams provided one of the day’s more-exciting finishes. In the Division 2 300 hurdles, Williams trailed Woodbridge’s Sun by a few feet at the final hurdle, then closed in before diving across the finish line to beat Sun by 1/100th of a second – 38.31 to Sun’s 38.32.
The dive was not as improvised as it appeared.
“If it came down to being neck-and-neck with the guy,” Williams said, “I thought diving over the line would work out.”
To Williams’ surprise, it did. His previous best was 39.04 in last week’s CIF-SS prelims, when Sun went 38.41
“I wasn’t expecting to win,” Williams said.
Two Dana Hills runners – senior Mason Coppi and sophomore Jack Landgraf – qualified for the Masters in the 3,200.
Contact the writer: sfryer@ocregister.com
