The California high school state track and field championship meet can be unforgiving, and that’s just talking about the weather, never mind the national-caliber talent assembled on the oval.
The Metro Conference qualified athletes in 10 events at this weekend’s meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis. It was among the largest number of qualifiers in recent memory.
The event, now in its 99th edition, is hailed as the top high school state track meet in the nation.
In this case, numbers told most of the story.
Only two athletes – Eastlake High School junior Jalyn Jackson and Otay Ranch senior Jeremiah Suzara – qualified to compete in Saturday’s finals to become part of that elite national-caliber field.
The reigning San Diego Section Division I champion in both the boys long jump and triple jump, Jackson set a school record of 23 feet, 4 inches, to place fourth overall in the long jump in Friday’s state prelims; he made the prelim cut in the triple jump with a mark of 46-0.25.
The triple jump mark didn’t quite measure up to the personal record 47-6.5 he posted the previous week at the section finals.
However, he proved he was able to produce in his first trip to the state meet.
“The mind set you have to bring here is that you belong here,” he said. “You’re here for a reason … You’ve got to continue what you’ve been doing all season.”
Jackson was one of two Metro state prelim qualifiers in the long jump. Olympian senior Michael Hull-Littlejohn placed fourth overall at the section finals with a mark of 22-10.75 to meet the predetermined qualifying standard to join Jackson.
However, the Eagle standout was unable to duplicate his prowess at Friday’s state prelims. He turned in a jump of 20-9 to place 24th overall.
He did not make the top 12 prelim cut to the finals.
Jackson extended his school record in the long jump by three inches on Friday. He credited his landing technique as the key. “I hope to fix a few more things and follow that with another PR in the finals,” he explained.
Jackson will be joined in Saturday’s long jump finals by a pair of section rivals: Tri-City Christian senior Matthew DeRoos and Rancho Buena Vista senior Collin Sample. DeRoos recorded the top prelim mark of 24-4.25 while Sample placed ninth overall at 22-11.25.
Jackson set the top mark in the county to win the triple jump event at last weekend’s section finals. While he fell well short of matching that at Friday’s state prelims, the slate is wiped clean for Saturday’s finals.
“I need to improve on my second phase in the triple jump,” he said. “I’ll be working to fix that. I’ll bounce back.”
Locals only
The Metro Conference qualified two athletes in the girls 400-meter dash, as well as athletes in the boys 800- and 3200-meter run and three relay events: boys 4×100 and 4×400 and girls 4×400.
All failed to advance past Friday’s prelims (3200 runners in the state prelims receive a bye to the state finals.)
San Diego Section Division I champion Adaeze Noble, a sophomore from Olympian, and Eastlake junior Leyla McFarland, the Division I runner-up, failed to match the school records they each set in the 400 dash a week earlier at the section finals.
Noble finished 17th in the prelim field of 26 runners in 56.91 while McFarland finished 19th in 57.17. Both runners were separated by just .02 seconds at the section finals, with Noble clocking 56.52 and McFarland timing 56.54.
Eastlake junior Jeffrey Page competed for the second consecutive year at the state prelims in the boys 800. His best time remains the 1:54.97 he set last year.
Page timed 1:57.35 to place 22nd in the field of 25 runners. He readily admitted disappointment at the outcome.
“It was a tough race – I didn’t expect it to go out so fast,” Page explained. “The first lap was 54 or 55 seconds. I wanted to lead it. But all I could do was hang on.”
Page posted his best time in temperatures 10 degrees warmer last year.
“I know the weather wasn’t it,” he said. “I know I’m able to compete with them. It’s just mental. I just need to find out what it is. Hopefully, I can come back next year and win CIF and place at state.”
Page rates as the top returning runner in the event next season. Poway senior Jarret Chinn led the section this year with the top time of 1:54.54 at the section finals; he placed 14th at the state prelims in 1:55.33.
The time did not advance Chinn to the state finals in the 800 but the Poway runner did qualify for the state finals in the boys 1600 event with a time of 4:14.94 (fifth among prelim qualifiers).
Olympian qualified to compete in both the boys 4×100- and 4×400-meter relays in Friday’s prelims.
The Eagles finished 22nd in the 4×100 relay with a time of 42.74 and 19th in the 4×400 in 3:25.35.
Olympian’s girls 4×400 relay unit was making a return trip to the state meet this year and had high expectations. However, those high hopes were dashed with a 15th-place finish out of 26 teams in a time of 3:54.97.
The Eagles had finished second in the section finals in the boys 4×100 relay and third in the 4×400 relay. Olympian’s girls 4×400 relay team had placed second among teams in the state qualifying heat.
Otay Ranch senior Jeremiah Suzara will compete in Saturday’s boys 3200 finals after placing runner-up in the event at the section finals.
Around the section
A number of San Diego Section athletes qualified to compete in Saturday’s state finals.
Mt. Carmel junior Qui Ellis posted the third fastest qualifying time in the boys 200 dash in 21.30 while La Costa Canyon sophomore Karson Lippert finished third in the boys 400 dash prelims in 47.76 to also advance.
La Jolla senior Sakura Roberson (third, 2:10.46) and Carlsbad senior Kiley McCarthy (eighth, 2:11.26) both advanced to the girls 800 run finals from Friday’s prelims.
Poway senior Kayla Myers finished fourth in the girls pole vault prelims to make the cut for Saturday’s state finals. She was among 10 girls who cleared 12-6. The cut went down to 12-0.
Vista junior Alia Scott ran 43.67 to place seventh overall in the girls 300 hurdles prelims.
A pair of La Costa Canyon runners advanced to the girls 1600 finals after placing seventh (junior McKenna Brown, 4:51.72) and 12th (sophomore Jessica Riedman, 4:57.33) in Friday’s prelims.
Central Union sophomore Steven Marquez qualified for Saturday’s finals in the boys high jump by making the top 12 prelim cut at 6-3.
Rancho Bernardo senior Ryan Winters (10th) and San Dieguito Academy junior Kevin Ward (11th) were among the top 12 prelim finishers to make the cut for Saturday’s state boys pole vault finals. Both vaulters cleared 14-10.
El Camino junior Nu’u Tuilerano (10th) made the top 12 prelim cut for Saturday’s state girls shot put finals with a mark of 41-8.
San Diego senior George Harris (11th) made the top 12 prelim cut for Saturday’s boys shot put finals with a mark of 55-3.5.
For updated results, visit the websites at www.cifstate.org, www.sdtrackmag.com and www.athletic.net.
Eastlake’s Jackson scores two medals at state track finals
Eastlake High School junior Jalyn Jackson took the high school track and field world by storm at this weekend’s 99thCalifornia state championship meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Jackson was the lone Metro Conference athlete to qualify for the second day of competition in two events in the two-day meet, which is considered the top high school track meet in the nation.
He didn’t disappoint his family, his coaches and his school. Most importantly, he didn’t disappoint himself.
Jackson finished with a sixth-place medal in the boys long jump and recorded a meteoric second-place finish in his specialty event, the boys triple jump.
The EHS standout broke his own school record in the long jump in Friday’s state prelims with a mark of 23-4; he set a new personal record in the triple jump at 48-5.25 in Saturday’s finals.
Jackson continues to rank second in the triple jump on the school record list. But he continues to close in on current holder Jordan Hines’ mark of 48-9.5 set in 2011.
The two days of competition at this year’s state finals, june 2-3, came in elevated temperatures (93 degrees for the prelims and 96 degrees for the finals) as well as an elevated competition level.
“It was a great pleasure being out here for the second day,” Jackson explained. “I was just blessed to be here with all these athletes, knowing I deserved to be here with all these athletes.”
While he did not match his school record in the long jump, ithe event served as a good warm-up for better things to come in the triple jump.
“I was off my PR by two inches but I placed sixth, so it was all good,” Jackson said. “It’s not my main event, so I’m happy.”
He said competing in two events on the same day at a championship meet can be especially grueling. But it’s something that’s not entirely foreign to him.
“Not that many people compete in both the long jump and the triple jump on the same day at the state meet,” he said. “I had to get myself back in the zone (after the long jump). I had to get energy back in my legs because I knew everyone else would be stepping it up. I just knew I had to be doing what I had been doing all year.
“I set a PR at the section finals, so I knew I could do it.”
Jackson stepped it up when he needed to.
Otay Ranch senior Jeremiah Suzara was the only other Metro Conference athlete who competed in Saturday’s state finals.
Running on the biggest stage in his high school career, Suzara, the Mesa League champion and section runner-up in the boys 3200 event, was making his first trip to the state championship meet as a senior. He did not let the bright lights and fast time intimidate him, nor take him off track of his goal.
“My goal was to try to PR but I didn’t get it,” he said. “I thought the lead group would go out faster but the group went out slower. When the group went out slower than I expected, I think that’s why I didn’t get my PR.”
But keeping pace with the leaders wasn’t his only concern; he had to keep pace with the runners immediately surrounding him in an effort to improve his own standing in the race.
“The part of the race when a gap opened up between me and the other runners, I closed the gap,” Suzara explained. “I kept passing people, I don’t know how many, but I wanted to leave everything I had on the track.”
Moving up an estimated eight places after the first mile, Suzara ran the third-fastest time in his career (9:22.22.85) to place 15th in the field of 27 runners.
The lead group blasted the final lap with three runners – San Luis Obispo senior Callum Bolger (8:53.91), Armijo senior Luis Grijalva (8:54.65) and St. Joseph senior Cooper Teare (8:55.93) – all breaking the nine-minute barrier.
Suzara proved to be the top San Diego Section finisher in the eight-lap race; Mt. Carmel senior Paul Simeon finished 27th in 10:14.66.
Suzara timed 9:21.96 to capture the Division I title at the section finals. His best time on the season was 9:19.57 set April 28 at the Escondido Invitational.
