Final hurdle to state track meet is Friday’s Masters

To add some perspective to the boys 300-meter hurdle race at today’s CIF-SS Masters meet, consider that Diamond Ranch High School’s Andrew Fischer posted the the state’s sixth-fastest time of the season last week at CIF-SS finals but finished fourth in his own race.

In all, the four 300-meter hurdle races at CIF-SS finals produced the top eight times in the state this year.

The competitors will all be the same today, but the difference at the CIF-SS Masters meet at Cerritos College is that there will only be one race for all of them. The stakes are high seeing as today is the final hurdle to reaching next weekend’s the state track meet.

The winner of Fischer’s Division 3 race last week was Damien’s Jarrett Gonzales, whose time of 36.80 seconds is the state’s fastest this season. He will have plenty of competition seeing as seven of the others on the track today have sub-38-second times to their name.

Rancho Cucamonga junior Jordie Munford enters the Masters meet with a CIF-SS Division 1 championship in tow after winning the 300 hurdles last week with the state’s new top time. Munford, who has her sights set on two state titles, was thousandths of a second from a CIF-SS title in the 100 hurdles too.

Colony sprinter Kyree King also needed three numbers to the right of the decimal point to award him the state’s third-best time in the 100 meters last week, one of his two CIF-SS titles along with the 200 meters. The top time in the 100 and 200 this year, however, each belong Southern Section competitors who will face off with King today.

King’s teammate Miles Poullard is the only athlete in the state to high jump 7 feet this year and is the top qualifier for Masters after winning Division 2 last week with a jump of 6-11. He also qualified in the long jump.

Colony’s Xochitl Navarette’s time of 4:47.19 in winning the Division 2 1,600 meters last week was the No. 2 time in the state this year, making her one of the favorites today.

Summit’s Donte Deayon won both Division 2 hurdles races at CIF-SS finals, clocking two times in the state’s top 10 this year: 14.22 seconds in the 110, which was No. 2, and 37.76 seconds in the 300, which was No. 7.

Bonita sophomore Nikki Wheatley claimed CIF-SS titles in both the long jump and triple jump and her mark of 39 feet, 8 1/4 inches in the latter ranks the fifth-best in the state.

Claremont’s Klyvens Delaunay, the CIF-SS Division 2 long jump champion, will compete today in both the triple jump and long jump, events in which he holds the second- and third-best marks in the state this season.

Rancho Cucamonga senior Luis Gutierrez, who won the CIF-SS Division 1 title in the 1,600 last week, holds the state’s sixth-best mark in the event but will have ample competition today in an effort to reach the state meet.

Los Osos’ Kelly Rhines actually finished third in both the 100 (11.69 seconds) and the 200 (24.09) at CIF-SS finals, but both are among the top-six wind-legal times in the state this year. She is also part of the Grizzlies’ 4×100 relay team that was second last week, but posted the No. 4 time in the state (46.58) in qualifying for Masters.

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