FIELD Grotegeer places third at CIF State Meet
Wheatland High junior Erica Grotegeer made her third trip to the CIF State Track and Field Championships count this weekend, and when it was all said and done, she found herself smiling with a place on the medal stand.
Grotegeer, the three-time Northern Section champion in the discus, put together the best performance of her life in front of the best athletes in the state and finished third in the discus with a throw of 167 feet, 9 inches during Saturday’s finals at Buchanan High’s Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.
Her medal-winning throw was a personal best by a full 6 feet.
“My goal this weekend was to make it to the second day. This was my third time here and I had never been, and once I made it, I thought I might have it in me to make it to the podium and I did that,” Grotegeer said. “It felt really good. I was so happy and ecstatic, and all of my throwing friends were proud of me.”
Grotegeer advanced to the finals after taking fifth in the preliminary round on Friday with a throw of 153-1. She made a slight adjustment to her stance for the finals, and it worked.
Once she made her final throw, she knew she was going to be on the medal stand.
“She had an incredible day. She had one at 160 and another one at 165,” Wheatland coach Jason Soderlund said. “It’s pretty amazing when you see an athlete develop the skill and the mental side of their craft. She’s done a great job this year becoming a more well-rounded athlete, and it’s been an incredible journey with her.”
Soderlund believes Grotegeer is the first Wheatland athlete to place at the CIF State Meet since the great Willie Clark in 1990. Clark, a sprinter, went on to receive a football scholarship to Notre Dame and played five years in the NFL as a defensive back.
Grotegeer was also the section champion in the long jump, and recorded a mark of 16-10 during Friday’s preliminaries to finish 31st out of 35 competitors. However, her main focus for the weekend was in the discus, she said.
Also turning in a personal best this weekend was Marysville senior Parker Jenks, who just missed out on a medal by taking eighth in the shot put with a heave of 56-0 ⁄
Jenks broke the school record in the preliminary round with a throw of 58-4 ⁄ to sit in sixth place heading in to the finals. The previous school record was 57-3 set by Vaughn Cain in 1969.
It was the last high school event for Jenks, who signed a track scholarship to Cal Poly on Tuesday.
Rounding out the list of local athletes who qualified for 99th annual CIF State Meet was Gridley senior Stephanie Cardenas, who competed in the preliminaries on Friday in both hurdle events. The Northern Section champion finished 11th out of 27 runners in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 44.71 seconds, and was 17th out of 26 competitors in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.06.
It was the second trip to State for Cardenas, who received a scholarship to run track for San Francisco State next year.