Desert Empire League individual track and field titles were handed out on Day 1 of the league meet on Tuesday with an emphasis on the field events.
Ten athletes can now call themselves 2022 DEL champions after the throws, the jumps and the 3,200-meter run were all held Tuesday at Palm Desert High School.
In fact, two of Tuesday’s competitors can call themselves double-DEL champions.
Shadow Hills thrower Isabella Pimentel, and La Quinta uber-athlete Alaysia Smoot both took home a pair of titles.
Pimentel, only a sophomore, won the shot put with a throw of 32 feet, 1 inch and the discus at 88-2. In both events, Pimentel did not enter Tuesday with the highest mark among the competitors, but she came through when it counted.
“I’m really proud of myself for all the work I put in this year to pay off,” Pimentel said. “I though it was possible if I stayed consistent and had the right mindset, and it worked out. Feel really grateful for all my teammates and coaches that helped me, too.”
Smoot, meanwhile, captured the long jump and the high jump titles. She had a long jump of 16-3 and a high jump of 4-8. Neither mark was a personal best, but the senior has been ahead of the pack all year and Tuesday night was no different.
Smoot is a smooth performer — Wait. Is Smoot, short for smooth? — who makes her winning jumps look effortless and easy, despite the skill and hard work that’s put into them. She’ll look to add a few more titles on Thursday.
There were other dramatic moments on Tuesday at Palm Desert. The boys’ high jump was particularly riveting as La Quinta’s Hayden McKee and Shadow Hills’ Chris Carter battled it out.
Carter shares the league meet title with a leap of 6-0 and McKee’s personal best was also 6-0. But as the meet went on, that would change. Both succeeded in clearing 6-0 and were the only two remaining as the bar was raised to 6-2. With a crowd gathering, both drew cheers when they each cleared 6-2, personal bests.
As they each then attempted 6-4, the crowd groaned as both competitors came agonizingly close, but couldn’t quite keep the bar in place.
“If I was just a little more flexible I might have had hit,” McKee said of 6-foot-4. “It was definitely possible.”
In the end, it was McKee taking home the first place title due to needing the fewest attempts to reach the mark. Carter took second and Tommy Ansley of La Quinta took third in a jump-off against Palm Springs’ Brayden Hapner.
Xavier Prep’s Bryan Chang won the shot put with a throw of 49 feet, 3 inches, and was vying for a double title, but in the discus he ran into a Palm Springs thrower who picked the right time to hit a personal best.
Jesse Manning, a junior for the Indians had a toss of 133-7, a full 10 inches farther than his best throw of the year up to that point. Chang couldn’t match that and took second place.
The league also decided to run both 3,200-meter championships on Tuesday, expecting hotter temperatures on Thursday which can be tough on the grueling race.
On the girls’ side there was no surprise as distance specialist Marjourie Lopez of Shadow Hills won with a time of 11:22.09. Xavier Prep’s Natalie Saas was second at 11:51.44 in a fantastic run for the junior, bettering her best mark of the year by almost 50 seconds.
The boys’ 3,200-meter had a comical look to it as the only competitors were five La Quinta runners. It did have a fantastic conclusion, though, as Martin Torres-Sandoval (9:53.01) edged Divan Mejia-Gonzalez (9:53.64) in a rare 3,200-meter photo finish.
The other champion on the night was Shadow Hills’ Malachi Murrell who won the boys’ long jump with leap of 21-feet. He did that on his first leap with a little bit of a dinged-up leg, so he didn’t try any more attempts after that and still won.
The rest of the track events (and the triple jump) will run on Thursday at Palm Desert where those champions will be revealed.
The DEL only began competing in 2019, but some new league meet marks were set. Lopez in the girls’ 3,200, Torres-Sandoval in the boys’ 3,200, McKee in the high jump and Chang, breaking his own record in the shot put, are now the new league meet record-holders.
Here are the top three in each event:
Boys’ shot put
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1. Bryan Chang, Xavier Prep (49-3)
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2. Ethan Lora, Shadow Hills (43-8.5)
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3. Diego Becerra, Shadow Hills (41-2)
Girls’ discus
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1. Isabella Pimentel, Shadow Hills (88-2)
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2. Karla Alba, Palm Desert (87-3)
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3. Kylee Borgen, La Quinta (81-9.5)
Girls’ high jump
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1. Alaysia Smoot, La Quinta (4-8)
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2. Victoria Hyatt, Shadow Hills (4-7)
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3. Kylee Borgen, La Quinta (4-6)
Boys’ long jump
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1. Malachi Murrell, Shadow Hills (21-0)
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2. Jisauri Duarte, Rancho Mirage (20-8.5)
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3. Michael DeTamble, Shadow Hills (20-0)
Girls shot put
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1. Isabella Pimentel, Shadow Hills (32-1)
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2. Karla Alba, Palm Desert (30-3)
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3. Mia Rivera, Shadow Hills (24-8.5)
Boys’ discus
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1. Jesse Manning, Palm Springs (133-7)
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2. Bryan Chang, Xavier Prep (118-8)
Boys’ high jump
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1. Hayden McKee, La Quinta (6-2)
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2. Chris Carter, Shadow Hills (6-2)
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3. Thomas Ansley, La Quinta (5-8)
Girls’ long jump
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1. Alaysia Smoot, La Quinta (16-3)
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2. Haylie Hutchinson, La Quinta (16-0)
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3. Kayden Harris, Shadow Hills (15-9)
Girls’ 3200-meter
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1. Marjourie Lopez, Shadow Hills (11:22.09)
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2. Natalie Saas, Xavier Prep (11:51.44)
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3. Monique Verduzco, La Quinta (12:13.07)
Boys’ 3200-meter
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1. Martin Torres-Sandoval, La Quinta (9:53.01)
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2. Divan Mejia-Gonzalez, La Quinta (9:53.64)
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3. Tyler Fieux, La Quinta (10:17.57)
Boys Golf
La Quinta 217, Rancho Mirage 293: The Blackhawks solidified a third-place finish in the Desert Empire League, but that still doesn’t answer the question of if the team will be in CIF-Southern Section team play in two weeks.
La Quinta coach Gary Nadler said his team might make the team regionals for Division 5, but he’s not sure just how the formula works for a team that didn’t win its league. Palm Desert won the league at 10-0, with Xavier Prep second at 8-2 and La Quinta third at 6-4.
In the victory at the Mission Hills North Course in Rancho Mirage, Tyler Garrison and Leonardo Perez-Menor each led the Blackhawks with a 39, followed by Sinjin Armstrong at 45, Daxton Westlake at 45, Jordan Duffy at 49 and Sterling Caress at 60.
Rancho Mirage was paced by Gram Craver at 55, Carlos Jauregui at 5 6, Isaiah Calderon at 58, Nate Cozad at 61, Johnny Castleberry at 63 and Abraham Jaimes at 64.
The DEL individual championships will be played next Tuesday and Thursday at Indian Canyons Golf Resort in Palm Springs.
Softball
Indio 12, Banning 0: The DVL champion Rajahs remained undefeated as ace Alyssa Grinstead pitched a three-hit shutout Tuesday.
The Rajahs racked up 10 hits, Victoria Huerta and Miyah Mata each had three hits to the lead the way.
Indio (20-5, 13-0) concludes the regular season Thursday against Banning. The CIF-SS softball playoff brackets will be released Saturday.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Field events in the spotlight as DEL dishes out individual titles
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