Last May, the Douglas High girls track and field team edged McQueen by two points to win the Northern 4A Regional championship at the Big George Athletic Complex.
Even though the rematch on Saturday at the same site was a different story, with McQueen sweeping victories in both the boys and girls divisions during a four-way conference meet, Douglas coach Jim Abbott was looking at individual performances rather than team scores afterward. And he was upbeat about the performances turned in by the Tigers on a mildly warm and overcast day.
"McQueen is deep and tough, especially with their boys (2009 region champions), but we knew that. We also know our team is real young, but we're working hard and improving," Abbott said. "I thought the kids performed well across the board today. This was a good meet for us; now we know what we need to do to get where we want to be."
The Douglas girls finished third as a team with 58.5 points -- "I thought they did a really good job for the lineup we had out there today," Abbott said -- winning three individual events and two relay races along the way. Meanwhile, the boys finished fourth with 42 points.
Holly Downer emerged as a double winner in the jumps with marks that rank among the best in the Northern 4A so far this season. The junior cleared a personal best height of 5-feet in the high jump to prevail in a duel against McQueen's Judy Fisher, who placed fourth at the 2009 regional meet. Downer also won the long jump at 16-4-1/2, one-quarter of an inch short of the personal best distance she logged one week before. Downer's high jump mark is the best in the North this season.
Freshman Morgan Karnofel won the 100-meter dash (12.9) and ran for the Tigers' first-place 4x200 and 4x100 relay teams. Karnofel ran anchor for a 4x200 team that included Shannon Sturgess, Susie White and Alexyss Easlick -- winning in a time of 1:49.0 that was six seconds faster than the rest of the field and now ranks as the fastest in the North this season. Marissa Cowan, freshman Tamrah Torres and Karnofel won the 4x100 in 52.9.
On the boys side, Scott Lococo had a busy day for the Tigers as he placed second in the 800, third in the 1,600 and ran for a third-place 4x400 relay team -- all in personal record times.
"Scott had PR. times by quite a bit in the 8 and 16," Abbott said. "Overall, he had a stellar day."
The senior went out hard in the 800 behind McQueen standout Rollins Stallworth, a state meet qualifier last year, and finished second in 2:06. In the 1,600, he chased Carson's Richard Shroy and McQueen's Geoff Hull to third-place with a time of 4:40.98. Then to cap off the day, Lococo ran 53.8 as a late addition to a 4x400 relay team that finished second (3:41).
This marked a continuation of his performance at the end of the fall cross country season, when Lococo placed 10th at the regionals and 12th at state. He was able to stay close in the 1,600 to Shroy (the reigning state champion in the 3,200 and state cross country champion), who won in a personal record time of 4:33.1 to edge Hull for first-place.
"My time in the 1,600 was a PR by 20 seconds," Lococo said. "I was trying to keep up with those guys; I let them pull me along and it was rewarding. I'm feeling really good right now, hopefully I can keep it going."
In the boys pole vault, sophomore Nick Maestretti cleared 13-feet to place second in a duel against Carson standout Eric Garcia. Maestretti made good on his third attempt at 13-0 to keep the competition alive and tie the personal best height he set last summer.
Cara Dunkelman, the regional 800 runner-up last year, placed second in the two-lap race with a time of 2:28.07. Also for the Douglas girls, Lauren Babbitt placed third in the 100-meter hurdles (17.5) and high jump (4-10), Easlick was third in the 400 (1:04.8), Jazz Halow third in the shot put (27-10), Megan Filbin fourth in the 300 low hurdles (54.4), freshman Aspen Abbott fourth in the triple jump (30-3-1/2) and freshman Shawnee McFadden took fourth with a jump of 6-6 in her first pole vault competition.
On the boys side, Ryen Ake placed second in the 110-meter high hurdles with a personal best time of 15.7, right on the heels of Carson senior Luke Carter (15.6), and later placed third in the 300-meter intermediates with a 42.7. Andrew Cobourn placed third in the 800 (2:10) and fourth in the 1,600 (personal best 4:49.81). Johnny Pollack placed second in the triple jump (40-5-1/2) and fourth in the long jump (19-4-1/2). And Justin Seyfried placed third in the pole vault with a jump of 11-6, which tied his personal record.
Progress was a key word for Douglas in the pole vault -- and for the team overall -- in this early-season meet.
"It was a good day," said Lane Maestretti, who coaches the Douglas vaulters.
"Everybody made a bar, all 11 of them, and for six of them this was the first meet they had ever vaulted in."
The Tigers compete again on Friday at the Galena frosh-soph invitational, followed by the Fallon Elks Invitational on Saturday.
