VC track & field teams solid against Escondido and at Sundevil Invite

Kaylee Hudson set a new school record in the 3,200 at the Sundevil Invite.

Valley Center’s varsity track and field teams put together another group of outstanding individual performances this week in a dual meet against Escondido on Thursday, followed by the Sundevil Invite at Mt. Carmel on Saturday.
The Jaguars hosted Escondido on Thursday, and after winning a total of 15 events in both the boys and girls events, ended up splitting the meet with the Cougars.
Valley Center won the girls meet 71–64 behind phenomenal performances from triple-winner Sidney Reilly and four more first-place finishes for the team.
Reilly won the 100 hurdles (16.39), the 300 hurdles (47.92) and the long jump (16-feet-3) to lead the Lady Jags, while also taking second in the triple jump after tying the top mark but coming up just short on her second-best attempt.
Sidney Reilly was a triple-winner for the Lady Jags against Escondido.

Meanwhile, Leina Villemez was the winner in the 100 (13.29), Caty Alvarez won the 200 (28.03), Kaylee Hudson won the 400 (1:02.77) and Lauren Gilster took first in the discus (106-0 3/4). The Lady Jaguars also won both the 400 relay (52.62) and the 1,600 relay (4:24.57) in the meet.
Gilster also took second in the shot put, while Vinessa Perryman took second in both the 100 and 300 hurdles. In the sprints, Alvarez and Villemez finished one-two in both the 100 and 200, while Hudson ran strong in the distance events to also take second in the 800.
The boys team, however, lost their meet 75–51 despite wins in six of the 15 events.
Jean-Marc Brierre dominated the throwing events, winning both the shot put (42-6) and the discus (133-6), while Ronnie Bourguignon won the 200 (23.07) and took second in the 400, Logan Fiddler won the 3,200 (10:13.65), Armando Diaz won the triple jump (39-0) and Nick Villemez won the pole vault (10-0).
The Jaguars also posted five top-ten individual finishes in the Sundevil Invite on Saturday, including two top-five overall finshes.
Reilly won her heat in the 300 hurdles (46.37), which gave her fourth place overall in Division II, while Hudson finished third in her heat in the 3,200 (11:20.49), good for third place overall in the division and a new school record.
Also for the Lady Jaguars, Gilster took second place in the discus (100-6) and eighth place in the shot put (32-1), while for the Jaguars, Nicasio Westlund took fourth in his heat in the 800 (2:01.69).
Both Jaguars teams will be back in action on Thursday at 3:15 p.m. at Del Norte to open league competition.

Five wrestlers take first place as Jaguars win Escondido Rumble

On Friday, 26 Valley Center wrestlers traveled to Escondido High School for a two-day wrestling extravaganza called The Rumble, and after a day that lived up to its name, the Jaguars came away with the tournament championship.
Each wrestler was guaranteed five matches, and those with highest win/loss records were entered into the medal tournament, where they could wrestle three additional matches. Sixteen Jaguars advanced to the medals’ tournament, with five winning championships in their respective classes—Sam McCuskey (98 pounds), Dustin Miller (106 pounds), Manny Boyle (122 pounds), Damian Stehly (173 pounds) and Travis Weddington (217 pounds).
Meanwhile, John Mayo took second at 98 pounds and Trevor Ryback finished third at 115 pounds. Four Valley Center wrestlers took fourth—John Murphy (114 pounds), James Oakley (122 pounds), Daquota Avila (138 pounds) and Kevin Izadi (heavyweight).
Five Jags finished seventh in the tournament—Zach Dewey (128 pounds), Kaulana Miller (128 pounds), Christian Guerrero (133 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds) and Lorenzo Gomez (heavyweight).
After more than 120 individual matches, 11 Jaguars earned medals for finishing in the top four.
But the biggest surprise of the day was winning the tournament championship. The tournament’s design is give underclassmen more opportunity to wrestle prior the entering the CIF tournaments. The Jaguars gained valuable experience that will be helpful for this coming CIF Division IV Tournament coming up on Saturday at Olympian High School in Chula Vista. Wrestling begins at 9 a.m. with the championship finals scheduled at 6 p.m.
The Valley Center wrestlers suffered a setback with a league finale loss to Del Norte High School, 39–27, on Thursday.
Two forfeits and some lackluster performances led the Jaguars to their demise, but two Jags won by pin—Juan Oros at 105 pounds and Dustin Miller at 114 pounds—while Christian Guerrero won a 5–4 decision at 132 pounds and Dylan Smith won a technical fall at 173 pounds.
The Jaguars finish the season in third place in Valley League with a 3–2 league record and a 4-4 overall mark.

Oros wins, Jags take ninth in San Pasqual wrestling tourney

Senior wrestler Juan Oros not only won the 105-pound weight class, but was also given the Most Outstanding Lightweight Wrestler award in the San Pasqual Wrestling Tournament this weekend.
The day didn’t start off as planned for Oros, however. Overweight by nearly a pound with only thirty minutes to shed the weight, Oros had to somehow work the weight off in the back seat of Coach Miller’s pickup truck. With the heater blasting, Oros did sit-ups and pepper-steps in the back seat until he arrived at San Pasqual High School right on weight.
Pinning all three opponents on the way to the finals, Oros was confident that he would win the championship. However, his finals match-up opponent, Jordon Griffin of Hilltop High, had other plans.
Oros spent a lot of energy executing two hard driving takedown attempts in the first period, only to come up scoreless. What was expected to be an easy victory for Oros turned out to be an aggravating, back-and-forth battle that ended up a tie in regulation time. So the match went into sudden death overtime, first takedown wins. Griffin attempted and nearly scored a double leg takedown, but Oros was able to counter the attack and stepped over for the takedown and the championship.
Junior Dylan Smith continued his winning ways at 162 pounds by finishing third place. Placing in their first varsity tournament, junior Damian Stehly finished third at 173 pounds, sophomore Daquota Avila finished second place at 137 pounds, and sophomore Christian Guerrero finished in fifth place at 132 pounds.
The Jaguars finished ninth as a team in a field of 23 schools.
Bouncing back from a Valley League loss to Orange Glen Patriots, 52–19, the Jaguars defeated the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs, 60–12. Individual winners were: Juan Oros (105 pounds), Zach Dewey (127 pounds), Christian Guerrero (132 pounds), Daquota Avila (137 pounds), Kevin Murphy(147 pounds), Damian Stehly (162 pounds), Dylan Smith (173 pounds), Jesus Diaz (191 pounds), and Aydin Cooper (heavyweight).