Girls Virtual Championship: Buchanan vs. Santa Margarita

While we acknowledge extreme apples and oranges in this comparison, it must still be noted that the 2019 outdoor season ended the same way as the 2020 virtual dual meet tournament just did.

With the Bears from Buchanan as the girls champions!

This time by all of two points!

Of the 50 points scored by Buchanan competing last May on its home track -- a brand spanking beautiful new track it is -- only two girls who contributed points that night also had marks from the abbreviated 2020 outdoor season that contributed here.

Led by senior distance star Corie Smith and junior sprinter Lauren Fowler, No. 5 Buchanan (CS) was a 69-67 winner over No. 3 Santa Margarita Catholic (SS) in the girls championship match of the MileSplitCA March Madness Virtual Dual Meet Tournament. 

The 32-team bracket event for both boys and girls, scoring only marks from the COVID-19-shortened 2020 outdoor season, was launched March 16. The final virtual dual was scored Tuesday night.

In victory, Coach Brian Weaver's Buchanan club got points from 17 girls, including double five-point victories by Smith (1600m/3200m) and junior Alexa Dandridge (100mH/300mH). Smith, bound for Arkansas, was runner-up in the 3200m at the 2019 CIF-State Championships, contributing eight points to the Bears title last May.

Here she added 10 to the total, based on marks in the 1600m and 3200m that both rank CA No. 2 for 2020, as well as rather high nationally. It was the fifth time in as many virtual duals that her two longer distance times were the fastest of the meet.

Fowler, an eight-point contributor with the fastest time in the 200m and the No. 2 mark in the long jump in this virtual, was a member of the runner-up 4x100m relay team at last spring's outdoor championship.

While Smith and Fowler are mentioned first as part of the story thread, this virtual meet title wouldn't have been possible without the marks from Dandridge, whose time in the long hurdles earned five points for the fifth time in as many virtuals. And that was also true for Northern Arizona-bound senior McKenna Chaney in the discus throw.

Santa Margarita (SS) got points from 13 girls, led by its usual stars from the junior class: Lauren Memoly, who totaled 16 points and event wins in the 400m and long jump, Erin Biddiscomb, who scored nine points with an event win in the triple jump, and Kendall Saeger, who had eight points, including the top time in the 800m. 

In keeping with the lead theme, Memoly was the only returning contributor for the Eagles at the 2019 State Meet, earning a sixth-place medal in the 400m and contributing to Santa Margarita's seven-place finish in the 4x100m relay. 

Back in the virtual world, Buchanan outscored its first four opponents by an average of 36.7 points per dual. Santa Margarita had outscored its first three opponents by an average of 29.6 points before getting challenged by No. 2 Upland in the semis, advancing to the final by just two points.

In this championship, Smith led a 15-12 Buchanan advantage in the distances, and Dandridge led 11-7 margin in the hurdles. But the greatest event group advantage came in the throws, where seniors Hannah Davis and Chaney plus sophomore Chinyere Egbuziem accounted for a 16-2 advantage.

While the overall trend was that the Buchanan girls had not hit PRs during the brief opportunity to compete in late February and early March where these marks are all taken from, that was not true for Egbuziem. She had PRs in both throws and contributed runner-up points in this tournament in nine out of 10 events.

Santa Margarita had a 41-32 advantage between the sprints and jumps. Memoly had 11 of her points across the 100/200/400. The Eagles also picked up points in these events from Biddiscomb, who added to her title in the triple with a four-point share of the high jump title (with Buchanan senior Leilani Costa). Also for the Eagles, sophomore Ashley Rodgers had the fastest time in the 100m and junior Nathalie Barnes claimed a meet title in the pole vault for the fifth consecutive virtual.

Biddiscomb's win in the triple jump marked the first time in five virtuals that Buchanan sophomore Maddy Passmore did not have the top jump. 

Buchanan was outscored in the sprints, 21-6, but Fowler earned five of those with the fastest time in the 200m. Other areas where the Bears made a crucial impact included in the distances where a pair of freshmen from the CIF-State XC Division I championship team, Grace Hutchison and Sydney Sundgren combined to chip in five points in the 1600m and 3200m with obvious PRs for the pair of 2023s.

Aside from that duo and Egbuziem in the throws, the only other Buchanan scorers with PR marks came from the trio of Jordan Leveque and Lyndsey Jennings, both freshmen, and senior Kennedy Avery, who combined for four points in the pole vault. 

100 Meter Dash

200 Meter Dash

400 Meter Dash

800 Meter Run

1600 Meter Run

3200 Meter Run

100 Meter Hurdles

300 Meter Hurdles

4x100 Meter Relay

4x400 Meter Relay

High Jump

Long Jump

Triple Jump

Pole Vault

Shot Put

Discus

Team Scores