Stage is set at CIF State championships

I’m here in Clovis at the CIF State Track and Field Championship for the Finals, at Buchanan High School in Clovis. I think a lot of people were nervous about holding the state championships at a high school facility, but this is no ordinary high school facility.

Great scoreboard (showing entries and instant finishing times), great track, adequate press facilities. I haven’t heard too many complaints except for the usual stuff about not knowing which gate to go through and the usual kinks that need to be worked out. So far so good. And the state championships will be here through 2011.

I wrote about San Bernardino County and Inland Valley highlights from Friday in the paper, but there were other notable accomplishments from outside the area that I wasn’t able to get in.

1) Reggie Wyatt of Riverside La Sierra setting a new national high school record in winning his 300 meter hurdles heat in 35.02 seconds, shattering the old mark of 35.28, also set at the state meet in 2007.

2) Anna Jelmini of Shafter set a new state record in the girls shot put when she went 53 feet, 8 inches in the Prelims

3) Jelmini is the top-ranked thrower in the country in both the shot and the discus, but on Friday’s she was upstaced by Bakersfield Stockdale’s Alex Collatz, who had the best discus throw of 177 feet, 0 inches, setting a national sophomore record.

More later as results start rolling in.