By Pete Borello

Ben Sitler beat the competition - and himself - at the recent Santa Clara County Junior High Track and Field Championships.

The eighth-grader at Blach Junior High successfully defended his boys B division titles in the mile and 880-yard runs and broke his own school records in both events May 30 at De Anza College in Cupertino.

Sitler cruised to victory in the mile, finishing in 4 minutes, 58 seconds.

“He won pretty easily,” said Steve Kane, Blach’s head track coach and athletic director. “He led all the way and won by 16 seconds.”

Sitler faced more of a challenge in the 880, winning by two seconds in what Kane called “a good, clean race.” Sitler ran a 2:13.45 to edge out a runner from Hyde who beat him the previous week at the Valley Junior High School Athletic League meet.

Blach’s Kate Kornegay also returned from the county meet with two championship medals. She won the 70 hurdles and long jump in the seventh-grade girls division.

Kornegay, who Kane said was “consistent all year,” ran the hurdles in 10.69 seconds and went 14 feet, 6 inches in the long jump.

Kornegay also placed fourth in the 100 dash (12.32).

Fellow seventh-grader Pauline Regala produced Blach’s other first-place finish of the day, winning the shot put with a throw of 32-5 3/4. Kane said Regala’s effort was nearly two feet better than the second-place finisher.

Sitler, Kornegay and Regala combined to score 50 of Blach’s 98 points. Blach tied district rival Egan for eighth place at the meet, which featured competitors from 27 schools.

“The team did very well,” Kane said. “I was really surprised by how high we ended up.”

The Egan athletic department did not return phone calls requesting information about its team’s performance at the county meet.