LHS Gutierrez commits to UC Davis
Only participated in track and field as a senior
In the short timeframe of the spring sport’s season, Marlene Gutierrez went from a shot put novice to a CIF State qualifier with a personal record throw of 42 feet and 0.75 inches that placed her fourth in the Valley and made her one of the top 20 female throwers in the state.
The recent Lindsay High School graduate’s season ended in stellar fashion with the University of California, Davis offering her a scholarship to compete for the NCAA Division I Aggies out of the Big West Conference soon after her first and only trip to the CIF State meet had concluded. Gutierrez signed a verbal commitment to UC Davis in a ceremony at Lindsay on June 6.
But despite all that she has accomplished, Gutierrez almost reluctantly accepts praise and instead gushes over the people that helped her achieve a dream that she had only recently realized.
“I think that things happen for reasons and I’m just really excited that I was open to this opportunity,” Gutierrez said. “That people — [LHS coach] John Caesar was such a big help, oh my gosh. He’s such an amazing person. Him and his family are just awesome and they really did help me get the work that I needed. They saw something for me in the future that I really couldn’t and made it happen. So it’s really awesome.”
Naturally gifted Already a three-sport athlete with volleyball, basketball and softball, Gutierrez decided to add track and field to her already crowded plate with the encouragement of Caesar. Over the past couple of seasons, Caesar’s daughter and Gutierrez played basketball together, and Caesar believed that with Gutierrez’s strength she could easily win at least league.
“I had coached her in basketball and she’s an outstanding athlete,” Caesar said. “Super strong, wonderful kid and I just said, ‘Hey, try it...i know you can win league just without any work.’
And Caesar was right. In her first throw at her first practice, an unsure Gutierrez threw the shot 30-feet — a throw that could’ve won her the East Sequoia League championship last season.
“How I see it in my opinion is raw talent-wise she could just go out and win league without any form of coaching,” Caesar said. “That’s the gift that she’s got. In order to do well in Area and make Valley, she had to do some work. Not a ton of work, but she had to learn the basics of shot put throwing.”
From novice to state qualifier From the beginning, Caesar knew he was working with a diamond in the rough and that there was a lot of potential when it came to Gutierrez. So with the help of Youtube videos, he set to work with the limited days Gutierrez had off from softball and helped develop Gutierrez.
“We learned enough to understand the progression of the basic power positions and what’s called a glide,” Caesar said. “It’s not the most sophisticated throwing position, but it’s the foundation and that’s really what we worked on to get her to a place where she could improve from her natural ability [to throw] 30 (feet) to 40s.”
In her first meet on March 10, Gutierrez threw 29-11, but by April the senior was throwing 36-feet consistently. At the ESL championships in May, Gutierrez threw her farthest at the time, 38-0.5, for first place then took second at the CIF Central Section Division II championships with 37-8.
At Masters in May, Gutierrez qualified for State with a personal-record, fourth-place throw of 42-0.75. It was a throw that drew a lot of attention from college coaches, according to Caesar.
On the side, Gutierrez also competed in the discus event and won the ESL title with a personal record of 102-2. She placed fifth at divisionals with 101-10.5. Believing in Gutierrez
Gutierrez’s greatest competition in the Valley for both events was three-time state medalist, Jocelyn Budwig of Fowler. Budwig, who won the state title this season in shot put with a throw of 46-1, and her father developed a friendship with Gutierrez that involved advising and encouraging the beginner, as well as making a phone call that would turn Gutierrez’s dream into a reality.
“[Jocelyn] was just giving me confidence out there and her dad was also a nice guy,” Gutierrez said. “Their family is wonderful overall. I had been talking to her and then her dad one day was like, ‘Where are you going to go? What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘Yeah I want to go to Davis and hopefully walk on because I really like the sport. I really love being out here for track and throwing the shot.’ And he was like I know [Davis throwing coach] KP [Singh], I’ll give him a call. And I was like ‘Oh my gosh, yay!’”
But Caesar and the Budwigs weren’t the only ones committed to making sure Gutierrez would compete in college. Coaches from the College of Sequoias and Fresno City College also put in a good word to Singh for Gutierrez.
Singh came out to see her at the CIF State meet and while Gutierrez didn’t have her best outing at state — she placed 25th at the preliminaries with a throw of 37-4.75 — Singh was still very interested in Gutierrez and let Caesar know he would like her on the Aggies’ team.
“I honestly cried,” she said about the scholarship. “I really just was so happy that someone else took other people’s words — John, coach Budwig, [coach] Trevor [Robinson] from COS — I’m pretty sure they did help him understand that it was my first time throwing. I was just so thankful to not only them, but just for the coach to really see something in me that I didn’t think would be happening for me. It’s just awesome.”
With so much untapped potential, Gutierrez’s future in shot put remains bright and unwritten. While majoring in psychology over the next four years, she hopes to reach 50-feet, a feat she expects to be hard, but possible with a supportive team behind her.
“I think what the college coaches see in her is that she progressed very rapidly in three months to compete at a state level,” Caesar said. “I think what the coaches see is boy, with really good coaching and a true throwing program she probably could’ve been a top three state contender and certainly she can be a contender at the collegiate level once she gets into a really good program.”