Slow start dooms Rice’s 400;
Merrigan will try again next season
Sacramento – No one can say that San Benito’s Jesse Rice didn’t leave it all on the track at the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships. There was physical proof that he did.
The senior, after running a 13th-best 49.35 in the 400, walked off the Sacramento City College track exhausted, stepping heavily as if every inch of him hurt.
But despite his best effort, Rice did not qualify for the 400 finals and ended his 4-year track career at Hughes Stadium Friday evening.
“He went out and gave it everything he had,” said San Benito boys track coach Iran White. “I’m proud of that kid for as long as I’ve worked with him.”
Rice, who ran a PR time of 49.17 at last week’s Central Coast Section Finals, said he recognized earlier than usual in the race that he started out too slow. But when he tried to kick things into gear, he didn’t have the juice.
“It was definitely a weird race,” Rice said. “Fifty meters into the back stretch, I felt I didn’t have anything left. I felt better coming into the (final) stretch, but I still had nothing left.”
The Los Angeles Section’s David Gettis of Dorsey ran the prelims’ best time of 47.13. Gettis, a senior, holds the nation’s best mark in the 400. The event’s final qualifier was the Southern Section’s Zach Chandy of Sage Hill (48.50).
“It feels great (to compete at state) because I look at everybody in the race to be of equal or better status than me,” Rice said. “It’s great to be able to compete.”
“I felt I had a great four years and had a great coach who mentally and physically worked my tail off,” he added.
Todd Merrigan’s bid to advance to the pole vault finals in his first state meet also fizzled Friday afternoon as the junior failed to make enough of his attempts to advance past the starting height of 14-04.00. He finished in 20th place with a mark of 14-03.05.
As the hot Sacramento sun beat down on track and field spectators from across the state of California, Merrigan took to the infield, ranked 12th out of 29 vaulters.
Merrigan said his problems stemmed from the difficulty he had gauging his standards throughout the competition. Some tricky wind conditions also kept the junior guessing about where he needed to plant his pole to get himself over the crossbar.
“The wind was killing me today,” he said.
“He was having trouble,” added White. “He hadn’t vaulted into a headwind before.”
The result was that the junior never quite got his bearings and found himself out of the competition.
In his final attempt, Merrigan barely grazed the bar but it was enough to bring it down. Merrigan had qualified for the meet with a height of 14-11. His season-best was 15-00, which tied former UCLA and NFL quarterback Cade McNown’s San Benito record.
Though Merrigan will have another year to improve and make a return trip to the meet, he wished he would have made a better debut.
“(My first time here) was pretty good,” Merrigan said. “But I wish I could have shown a lot more.”
As a consolation for the day, Merrigan entered a push-up contest sponsored by Macy’s. He did 57 push-ups in 30 seconds to win his “heat,” but was beaten later by two other participants.
“I thought maybe I could win something today,” Merrigan said. “But I guess not.”
Amanda Boyd will have her shot at the 3200 meter title tonight. The race kicks off at 7:25pm.
