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Casa's Taylor, Healdsburg's Bingham dominate meet Taylor leads Casa to 83-47 win; Bingham takes sprints, hurdles By PHIL BARBER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Wednesday, April 29 Until then, each is content to dominate at different distances. Taylor is virtually unbeatable at 800 meters or longer. Bingham has been tearing up the Sonoma County League in the sprints and hurdles. Both were predictably stellar Wednesday night at a dual meet at Healdsburg. Each won three individual races, Taylor at 800, 1,600 and 3,200 meters, and Bingham taking the 100- and 200-meter sprints along with the 100-meter hurdles. Taylor got a little more support from her trackmates, and the Casa girls won, 83-47, remaining undefeated in the SCL at 5-0. Healdsburg fell to 2-3. On the boys’ side, both teams entered 3-1 and the Greyhounds scored an 82-49 victory. The lean, fluid Taylor sometimes looks as though she’s hardly working, even while opening up a huge lead. In the 1,600, for example, she was 30 yards ahead of the second-place finisher. Running with the boys in the 3,200, her time of 10:50.26 was a new Empire best for girls. Taylor was pushed more closely in the 800, though — by her teammate, Dominique Ratto. Taylor finished in 2:22.03, and Ratto was in sight at 2:23.33, making her the second-fastest girl in the Empire this year in the 800. Bingham — whose mother, Jenean, coaches the Healdsburg team — was fully expected to win the 100 meters and 100 hurdles. But she ran the 200 for the first time since junior high school. Claire not only won, but turned in the third-best time in the Empire this year at 27.16. “I feel I could have gone out a little faster,” Bingham said. “I felt pretty strong at the end.” Among the Healdsburg boys, Dante Fountain, Thomas Kozel and Eric Arneson proved too much for visiting Casa. Fountain is one of the best sprinters in the Empire this year. He won the 100 meters in 11.11 seconds Wednesday, and the 200 in 22.06 seconds. In both cases, Kozel was his toughest competition. The younger Greyhound was clocked in 11.29 over 100 meters and 22.53 over 200. Fountain also is known as a deep-threat wide receiver for the Healdsburg football team, and he might have momentarily thought he was on the football field Wednesday when he saw Khalil Keys, the Casa Grande halfback and sprinter. “He’s like a train,” Fountain said of the muscular Keys. But the train couldn’t outrun the Fountain this time. Arneson, who hasn’t lost a hurdles race in the SCL this year, won the 100 in 15.73 seconds and the 300 in 39.84. Casa freshman Adam Lundquist finished second to Arneson in the 300. Spencer Hall kept the meet from being too one-sided. The Gauchos junior won both the 1,600 (he’s top 10 in the Empire) and the 3,200. Perhaps a small part of the credit should go to his training partner and neighbor — Jacque Taylor. The two go for warmup runs together three or four days a week. “She’s got a lot of energy,” Hall said. “She can make you smile.” While Hall was smiling to victory, Casa shot putter Elaine Weaver was summoning her inner hothead. Weaver, a sophomore who didn’t throw as a freshman, easily set her personal best with a toss of 34 feet, 9 inches, then admitted afterward that she benefits from visualizing her tormentors. “I try to focus on who ticks me off and take it out on them,” she said. One person who never makes her highlight reel is fellow Gauchos putter Poulima Lutu, who pushes her teammate in practice and is usually the only one close at meets. Wednesday was no exception as Lutu threw 31 feet, 4 inches. The boys’ 800 was one of the best races of the afternoon. Casa Grande sophomore Ben Trango took the lead on the second lap, but Healdsburg’s Alex Taylor got it back and held off Trango down the stretch. The Hounds’ Wes Young won the boys’ 400 in 52.94, while the Gauchos’ Flynn Lenny won the girls’ race in 62.70. The Healdsburg 4x400 boys’ relay team, one of the best in Sonoma County, won easily. John Carlisle of Healdburg cleared 6 feet to win the high jump. Healdsburg won both JV contests, the boys by a score of 55-50, the girls 62-23. You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
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