CIF Track and Field State meet is first for many
Four of five local qualifiers are first-timers
The 2018 CIF State Track and Field Championships enters its’ 100th year with five local athletes vying for a chance to claim their first state medal or title.
Ivan Mendez and Imelda Suarez of Monache High School, as well as Marlena Gutierrez and Mckaylie Caesar of Lindsay will make their first appearances at the meet while Strathmore’s Madison Bower returns for the second year in a row.
The two-day meet is held at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis beginning today with qualifying events followed by championship events on Saturday. Gates open today at 2 p.m. with general admission prices of $12, while Saturday’s gates open at 3:30 p.m. and general admission increases to $14. More information can be found at cifstate.org/sports/track_and_ field/tf_champs.
Girls Shot Put, 5:30 p.m.
Lindsay senior Marlena Gutierrez exchanged the softball diamond for the shot put circle, where she has excelled in her first year. In her first and only season with the Cardinals track and field team, Gutierrez not only won the East Sequoia League Championships, but went on to place second at the CIF Central Section Division II Championships and take fourth at the CIF Central Section Masters Meet with a personal record throw of 42-feet, 0.75-inches. The distance earned her the 11th-seed in Friday’s qualifying rounds.
However the nearly untouchable Jocelynn Budwig, a junior from Fowler, holds the top seed in girls shot put with her Valley winning throw of 46-11.50. Budwig’s personal record is 47-7 and is over three feet farther than second-seeded junior Natalie Ramirez of West Ranch’s 44-8.75. At least’s state meet Budwig placed seventh with 42-feet. Girls 1,600m, 5:30 p.m.
Two of the Orange Belt’s best girls distance runners — Lindsay junior Mckaylie Caesar and Monache senior Imelda Suarez — compete against each other once again in the 1,600-meter run. Caesar was named the 201718 All-orange Belt Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year while Suarez received the honor the year before.
At Valley’s Caesar (5:07.53 PR) placed third while Suarez (5:12.57 PR) came in fifth. In both girls’ first trip to state, Caesar is seeded 27th and Suarez 30th. The topseed belongs to Davis senior, Olivia O’keeffe, her time of 4:42.71.
Girls 300m hurdles, 8:05 p.m.
In her second and final trip to state, Strathmore’s Madison Bower looks to surpass last year’s 44.72-second, 12th-place finish in the 300-meter hurdles. The Recorder’s 2016-17 All-orange Belt Girls Runner of the Year enter’s the final meet of her senior season with a bit of a chip on her shoulder after taking second at the Valley meet. Bower’s has yet to touch her personal record of 44.27 which won her the Valley title last season.
With a 44.37 finish at Valley two weeks ago, Bower earned a 16th-seed and will face tough competition trying to reach Saturday’s final. Calabasas junior Kyla Robinson-hubbard (41.82 PR) did not compete in the 300 hurdles at state last season, but holds Friday’s top-seed after winning the Southern Section. The top returners from last year’s meet are fourth-seeded Segerstrom senior Nyree
Brown (42.67) who finished fifth last season and fifth-seeded Vista senior Alia Scott (42.71) who came in ninth.
Boys 3,200m, TBD The only local male to advance to state was Monache junior Ivan Mendez, who raced his way to a second-place finish at Valley in the 3,200-meter race with a time of 9:30.19. The time earned the 201718 Boys Cross Country Runner of the Year the 24th-seed at state despite his personal record being 9:27.43.
Beating Mendez out for first at Valley was, Stockdale junior Marcus Mota who placed seventh at state last year with a personal record of 9:09.93. At Valley Mota finished with 9:22.62 to earn the 21stseed. Holding on to the top-seed is Xavier Court, a senior from Mira Costa who PR’D at the Southern Section with a time of 9:01.78 to win his section’s meet and advance to his first state meet.