Athletes set sights on records at CIF State Track & Field Championships this weekend in Northern California
Seven area athletes qualified for the CIF State Track & Field Championships beginning with today's prelims in Clovis and concluding with Saturday's finals.
Here's who qualified: Arcadia's Ammar Moussa (1,600 and 3,200; both on time, 4:14.73 and 9:06.06); South Pasadena's Sam Pons (3,200, third place, school record 9:00.95); South Pasadena's Krist Porayanee (110 high hurdles, 14.63 fourth place); Pasadena Poly's Graham Sadler (high jump, 6-6 on result, first Poly athlete to advance to state); La Canada's Jonathan Sparks (high jump, 6-6 on result); Arcadia's Ted Hooper (long jump, fourth, 22-10 1/2); and Arcadia's Catrina McAlister (1,600, on time, 4:53.69).
Our Keith Lair will be on assignment in Clovis this weekend and bring you all the results in Friday and Saturday's paper. In the meantime, I leave you with a list of links with preview stories (and videos at DyeStatCal.com)
RELATED LINKS
For Arcadia's Moussa, time is on his side (Star-News)
2009 CIF-State Meet Preview Story (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of throwing events (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of high jump and pole vault (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of hurdles (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of boys sprints (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of girls springs (DyeStatCal.com)
VIDEO: Preview of boys/girls relays (DyeStatCal.com)
There is a commonality among all seven Pasadena area high school athletes heading into today's CIF State track and field championships: All hold school records.
That's a good reason each will be participating in the two-day meet, which will be held at Buchanan High School in Clovis, just northeast of Fresno. Qualifying begins today with field events at 3p.m. and running events scheduled to start at 5 p.m. On Saturday, field events are scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. and running events at 6 p.m.
Five of those athletes set school records in the past two weeks, at either the CIF-Southern Section championships or Masters Meet, both held at Cerritos College. South Pasadena sophomore Sam Pons did it twice, running the 3,200 meters in 9 minutes, 5.74 seconds in the Division III finals and then a 9:00.95 in the Masters Meet. Arcadia sophomore Ammar Moussa also did it in the 3,200 in the Masters with a 9:06.06, shaving six seconds off the record he set a week earlier.
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Arcadia sophomore Catrina McAlister set the 1,600 record at the Masters, running a 4:53.69. Teammate Ted Hooper jumped 22-10 1/2 in the long jump at the Masters, breaking his own record set at the San Gabriel Valley Championships. The last time an Apaches long jumper reached the State Meet was 18 years ago.
South Pasadena's Krist Porayanee set a school record in the 110 high hurdles in the CIF finals in 14.17 in winning the Division III title.
High jumpers Graham Sadler of Pasadena Poly and Jonathan Sparks of La Ca ada both set school records earlier this season. Sadler, the first Poly athlete to make the State Meet, jumped 6-7 in the Prep League finals and Sparks, a junior, cleared 6-8 in a Rio Hondo League dual meet against Temple City.
All anticipate that they can better those performances.
"I'm ready to push it hard," said Pons, who had designs on breaking the 9-minute barrier at the Masters, but missed by less than a second. "I still had a good amount of energy left."
Pons and Moussa are the lone athletes who do not need to qualify today; there is only one 3,200 race this weekend. A fast pace, probably led by North Coast Section champion Erik Olson of Novato, could lead both to times of under 9 minutes. Olson has run faster than 9:00 four times this season with a top time of 8:55.06.
"Not running in the 1,600 will help big time," said Moussa, the lone CIF-SS athlete to make qualifying times in the two distance events.
"My legs will be fresher."
Both Sparks and Sadler are likely going to need personal bests to advance to Saturday's finals. Ten competitors have already cleared 6-9 this season, of which nine are from Southern California.
"We're the best jumpers of anywhere, so its amazing to be jumping with them," Sparks said of advancing to State. "It's a small group, so you start to know everyone. I definitely wanted to PR, but getting to state was definitely among my top two goals."
Hooper said he needs to make his "pop straight up" in the long jump and if he can, he said he could surpass 23-0, which should give him a shot at making Saturday's finals.
Porayanee advanced to State despite having trouble getting out of the blocks in the high hurdles at the Masters Meet. He finished fourth in the race to advance. He had the 18th fastest time out of all qualifiers, but based on his CIF Finals time, he would be among the top nine.
Like Moussa, McAlister will no longer have to worry about saving herself for two events. The difference is that she did not have the option of dropping out of the 3,200. She missed the qualifying time.
But that may have been an omen because she didn't have to choose. The 1,600 field is wide-open and because she was saving herself for the 3,200 last week, she doesn't need to this week and could certainly contend for the title. The top 12 athletes are within six seconds of each other.
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Melendez worked as a correspondent for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune for three years and later landed a job as a freelance writer at the Los Angeles Times before accepting an offer at The Orange County Register covering high schools. Melendez covered Major League Soccer at The Register for three years before being promoted to report on the Lakers, Angels and Dodgers for the Web. Melendez also worked for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Fresno Bee, Oakland Tribune and The Boston Globe. E-mail opinions, suggestions and tips to miguel.melendez@sgvn.com. |
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