The Masters Meet in Cerritos takes center stage

All of our local athletes have an excellent chance to advance. Darien Johnson of Bishop Amat in 110 hurdles is the only one without a seasonal best superior to the State At-Large mark, but he has made such rapid progress (14.90 at MtSac to 14.48 last week) that the State number of 14:38 is clearly in reach.

In a sport where there are no "locks", as several local athletes discovered in the past two weeks, Karynn Dunn are about as close as you can get in her three events. Karynn is a seasoned performer who has been down this path all four years. Sheldon Price is new to this level of competition, but a surplus of talent can make up for a lack of experience and he should be able to ride the momentum of his recent performances to Fresno.

Three of Damien's four relay runners are new to this level, but they are very well trained and should handle the big meet pressure.

Eric Rogers (Triple Jump) and Chris Ramsey (800) are also new to this stage, neither athlete having advanced beyond CIF prelims before this year. Rogers' best is just a fraction below the at-large mark and he will need to be at his best to advance. Ramsey had a rough time in his final last week, but he has run below the state standard three times and so a smooth race should see him through.

This has been an exceptionally strong year in the Southern Section for our sport, so much so that the three boys from our area that competed in last year's State meet failed to advance. In many of the events tonight, the entire field has the capability of making the at-large number.

BTW, it would be nice if our sport could engender discussion on this blog in keeping with the number of athletes taking part and the quality of the performances. But the very things that fill up discussions of other sports - who should be playing, who is better - are solved on the track, runway and ring. You can argue that a .350 batting average in the Sierra League is superior to a .370 average in the Montview League, but it would be silly to claim a 21' long jumper is better than a 23' jumper. For me, this is one of the sport's great attractions. And unlike the others sports that compete in an ever-growing number of divisions, tonight the competition is the 9-12 best from the entire Southern Section - which makes this event stronger than almost any other state's State Meet.

Good luck tonight to all of our athletes.