Weather wreaks havoc on nation’s best at Stanford
Invitational
Palo Alto – Athletic excellence was in the air at the Stanford Invitational yesterday. But unfortunately for the five San Benito athletes who competed in the first day of this elite track and field meet, there were some nasty elements at hand as well.
With a driving rain leaving the facilities at Cobb Track and Angell Field in treacherous straights and a bitter cold replacing the wet in the evening, the ‘Balers were forced to compete alongside some of the Western region’s top athletes in far less than ideal conditions.
San Benito senior Amanda Boyd was the first of the ‘Balers to take the track and was forced to deal with the brunt of the foul weather. Soaked from her rainy warm-up session, Boyd then had to combat puddles on the racing surface, a steady rain and a frosty temperature that she said changed the complexion of the race.
“When you’re running seven or eight laps around the track, it comes into play bigtime,” said Boyd. “The cold goes right to your shins and your calves.”
Fast forward three hours, when Haybalers Josh Schroder and Todd Merrigan saw the rain finally start to taper off just as they completed their preparations for the pole vault competition.
“It’s raining, your pole gets wet and then you have to re-tape your poles,” said Schoder, who then detailed the difficulties of competing in the frigid nightime weather. “Making the height, chillin’ for a bit and then the bar goes up. It affects you a little.”
Not that the San Benito stars needed any other challenges on this day. With plenty of athletes in the field having already posted top national marks and headed to major college programs, the ‘Balers found themselves going head-to-head with some of the best competition available.
San Benito sprinter Jeff Weltz had his eye-opening moment at the starting line when the heat before his in the 100-meter dash was announced.
“I’m just standing there, warming up and the announcer says [about one the other runners], ‘He’s No. 3 in the nation with a time of 10.48.’ When you hear that, it’s pretty amazing,” said Weltz. “It’s like racing against animals. That’s so unbelievably fast, it’s amazing.”
But these ‘Balers were here because they belong. And, despite the less than ideal conditions, they set out to prove it.
Once the 3000 got going, Boyd seemed to adjust better than most of the other 19 runners in her heat. The ‘Baler distance champ quickly settled into the third spot and stayed there throughout the first three laps.
A group of runners overtook her shortly thereafter, a moment that Boyd called critical. Despite running at the same pace as those runners for the rest of the race, Boyd said that brief advantage makes all the difference in the end.
“The surge is big, especially in the 2-mile,” said Boyd, who would finish eighth in her heat in 10:35.53. “It’s just like a mindset. The surge is huge.”
San Benito’s Rigo Vasquez experience a similar phenomenon, but in his 3000-meter race, the surge came right at the start. With nearly everyone bolting out at the gun, the Haybaler immediately found himself near the back of the pack.
“I didn’t expect that,” said Vasquez, who battled back to overtake a few of those runners over the next two laps. “It caught me [off guard]. I started way in the back and … I already knew I had a lot of catching up to do.”
The two San Benito distance runners walked off the track guardedly pleased with their performances, but both also wished they had attacked their races differently.
Boyd took 10th overall amidst 38 runners. Megan O’Reilly of Mt. Pleasant (Wash.) blew away the field, finishing more than 47 seconds in front of her nearest competitor.
Boyd knew from the get-go that O’Reilly would be a tough foe to overcome.
“I’ve read about her,” said Boyd. “When they announced her, I was like, ‘Oh gosh.'”
Vasquez finished his race in 9:10.40, good for 27th out of the 44 runners.
Asked what adjustments he would make if he could do the race over again, Vasquez said, “I would’ve gotten a way better start. Next time, I’ll do that.”
Weltz, who tweaked his surgically-repaired left knee in San Benito’s meet at Salinas on Thursday, finished the 100 in 11.83, good for seventh in his heat.
Merrigan and Schroder both topped out at 13-11 1/4 in the pole vault. Clearing the bar at 14-5 would have been a PR for Schroder, but he now hopes to achieve that mark at the Arcadia Invitational next weekend.
Merrigan, who has felt the effects of the flu for the past week, was disappointed he wasn’t at his best for a meet he was anticipating.
“Under the lights … it pumps you up,” said Merrigan, who holds San Benito’s record at 15-2. “Big meets … big jumps. [But] I’m just really sick. If I wasn’t sick, today would’ve been great.”
Merrigan and the rest of these ‘Balers will have another crack at a top-notch field next weekend. As steep as the competition is at Stanford, San Benito’s best will see even better athletes next weekend in Arcadia – at an event considered among the top high school invitationals in the nation.
Three Haybalers will compete in today’s final session of the Stanford Invitational. Boyd and Vasquez will take the track again, eager to show off their form in the one-mile race. And Josh Liem is set to tackle today’s field in the pole vault competition, an event that begins at 9am.
