A handful of Haybalers will look to move on today
The whole track and field season has just been a warm-up for today.
At this evening’s CCS Track and Field Finals, six ‘Baler athletes and two relay teams will compete against the section’s cream of the crop.
The meet, which starts with field events at 4pm and continues with running events at 6pm, takes place today at Los Gatos High School. The top three finishers in each event move on to the state meet next Friday at Sacramento City College.
The San Benito boys certainly proved themselves as a fast team by qualifying individuals in each of the sprinting events. The ‘Balers have Chuck Thompson in the 100 (qualifying time: 11.03), Jeff Weltz in the 200 (22.50) and Jesse Rice in the 400 (50.12).
Rice, who finished second in the 400 at the CCS Finals last year, currently holds the section’s second-best mark of 49.22. He also qualified in the 200, but won’t run it to concentrate on the 400, his specialty.
Todd Merrigan was the lone San Benito pole vaulter to make it out of the semifinals. He and the rest of the pole vaulting pack will be chasing St. Francis’ Kyle Mills-Bunge, who vaulted to 15-09 for the semifinal victory. The next closest mark was a 14-06 and was reached by four vaulters, including Merrigan. Merrigan’s best mark this season was 15-00.
For the girls, Amanda Boyd (3200, qualifying time: 11:11.16) and Crystina Osborne (discus, qualifying distance: 116-08 feet) will also be competing. Boyd qualified in the 1600 as well, but dropped it so she can concentrate on the 3200, which is considered her strongest event. Boyd’s top competition is Gunn’s Tori Tyler and St. Ignatius’ Ciara Viehweg. The two finished first and second with times of 10:42.75 and 11:05.08, respectively, at the CCS Semifinals last week. Tyler owns the sixth best time in the state of10:37.63.
In girls discus, the top thrower Osborne will have to face is Harbor’s Julie Dufresne, who has been dominant all season and won the semifinals with a mark of 129-10.
The boys team also had two relay teams qualify, the 4×100 meter relay and the 4×400 meter relay. The 4×100 relay team of Weltz, Thompson, Rice and Chad Tungate ran a school-record setting time of 43.34 at the semifinals last Saturday and snatched the final qualifying spot. The top team it will have to face is Archbishop Mitty, who had the best qualifying time last week of 42.37.
The 4×400 team of Weltz, Rice, Kyle Bambrick and Ian Whitely will have to break the 3:30 mark at least to make the state meet.
