San Benito trackster Ryan Shorey clocked 50.29 at Adidas Golden
West Invitational in Folsom Saturday
Folsom
San Benito High junior Ryan Shorey, fresh off his state track appearance, competed for the final time this season at the Adidas Golden West Invitational in Folsom last weekend.
Although the GWI wasn’t as large as the previous weekend’s state meet, it did carry an impressive alumni list, which included Allyson Felix, Marion Jones, Steve Prefontaine and two-time Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner, who specializes in the same event as Shorey – the 400 meters.
“The competition was high, but there were not a lot of people there,” Shorey said. “It wasn’t as big as I thought it’d be, but it was cool – a lot of Olympians have won there before.”
Competing in the 400-meter B Section, Shorey took first place in his heat with a 50.29, easily defeating second-place finisher Cody Clifford (50.70) of Spanish Springs in Nevada.
“I didn’t run quite what I wanted to. I wanted to break 49 (seconds),” Shorey said. “But it was really windy, so I had to drop my standards a little bit and just try and break 50 (seconds).”
The Haybaler trackster said during the day, winds were clocked at four meters per second on the home stretch, “so that’s pretty strong,” Shorey added.
Xaviar Archangel of Calhoun High in Texas was third in 51.12, while Aaron Criswell and Gianni Jackson, both of Archbishop Riordan in San Francisco, recorded times of 51.95 and 52.47, respectively.
Shorey ran alongside both Clifford and Archangel, and said their seed times were both below 50 seconds.
“So I knew I was gonna have to push myself,” said Shorey, whose personal best this year was a 49.39 at the Central Coast Section Finals, a time that qualified him to Norwalk for the CIF State Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College.
The CCS finals time was also Shorey’s seed time at GWI.
“State was a lot bigger than this meet … but there were a lot of college coaches [at GWI],” Shorey said. “So I just wanted to be able to do good in front of them.”
Shorey still has his senior year to turn some heads, but he already plans on being back on the track for the Los Gatos Summer All-Comer Meets, which begin June 19.
