Boyd, Merrigan and Rice all advance to final meet of season
Los Gatos – For Amanda Boyd, the 3200 meter race has truly been a labor of love.
She trained hard through the winter and the track season. She even decided not to compete in the 1600 meter race at the CCS Track and Field Finals Friday, even though she took second in event in the semifinals.
But at the CCS Finals meet at Los Gatos High School yesterday, all the work and sacrifice finally paid off.
Boyd broke the 11 minute mark for the first time this season en route to a state-qualifying 10:54.86 second-place finish.
“I’ve been working very, very hard,” said an exhausted Boyd after the race. “I gave everything I had. I never have side pains and my side still hurts.”
“I ran the first mile in 5:05,” Boyd added. “That’s insane. My PR in the mile is 5:03.”
Boyd kicked things into gear in her final lap, putting distance between her and St. Ignatius Ciara Viehweg, who finished third. The two were neck and neck going into the final lap.
“I thought ‘I want this so bad,'” Boyd said. The junior has shaved more than 25 seconds off her 3200 time since the beginning of the season.
Gunn’s Tori Tyler won the race with a new state-best time of 10:31.04.
Joining Boyd at the state meet will be senior Jesse Rice, who took second in the 400, and pole vaulter Todd Merrigan. The Baylor University-bound Rice ran a new PR of 49.17 to earn him his second appearance at the state meet.
“That’s the weakest part of my race, the first 50…I felt all right, but I always do and coach yells that I’m too slow,” Rice laughed. “This year has been weird because there really hasn’t been much competition so I didn’t get pushed for the times I should be running.”
Senior Todd Merrigan also qualified in the pole vault by hitting 14-11 feet, good for fourth place.
Merrigan had a scary moment on one attempt when he didn’t quite get enough momentum to put him over the pole. He started falling straight back down to the runway, but managed to lean on his pole and muscle himself safely onto the pit mat.
“I thought I was gonna die,” Merrigan said matter-of-factly after the competition. “That’s my main problem. I don’t get in far enough. I need to take the last few steps faster.”
At the state meet, Merrigan hopes to break the school record of 15-00, held by Cade McNown. He’s tied it once this season.
Crystina Osborne turned in a solid discus performance, hitting a mark of 116-10 for fourth place.
In the 100 meters, Chuck Thompson took sixth with a time of 11.12. Jeff Weltz took eighth in the 200, a race where he was the only junior in a field of all seniors, with a time of 22.92. Rigo Vasquez took eighth in the 3200 meters (9:39.01).
The San Benito boys 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams fell upon some tough times. The 4×100 team of Weltz, Thompson, Rice and Chad Tungate took eighth (43.97) after Tungate pulled up a few meters short of the finish line with an aggravated hamstring. The injury has hampered him throughout the season. In the 4×400, sophomore Christian Dominguez filled in for Tungate, joining Weltz, Ian Whitely and Rice. They also finished eighth with a time of 3:33.06.
