The track and field season ended for all but one local athlete Friday at Gilroy High during the Central Coast Section track and field championship.
San Benito’s Christopher Cook was the only South Valley athlete to advance past the section championship, finishing with a state-qualifying 22-10 leap in the long jump. The jump was good for sixth place during the CCS meet.
Cook needed only one jump to get the qualifying distance – recording his personal record – before quickly running over to the high jump across the field.
The ecstatic Cook was stunned he needed only jump to reach the distance.
“It was really nice,” he said. “Right after I jumped my first time, I got up and heard the mark and started screaming. It’s pretty nice to make it to state. It was really nice making it on the first attempt. It was a confidence booster.”
Cook used that confidence during the high jump. Cook missed out on another state berth by two inches as he couldn’t quite get over the 6-05 height after a couple of attempts. On his last try, his shorts just clipped the bar, knocking it over.
“It’s a little disappointing,” he said. “I wanted to go this year (in the high jump). It gives me something to work for next year. I’m pretty excited.”
Cook will compete in the CIF State finals Friday in Clovis.
Other locals just missed out on an opportunity to go to state. With each event taking the top three finishers to the state finals, San Benito’s Vanessa Estrada (3200), Christopher’s Haley Romero (long jump), Live Oak’s Fa Saulala (discus) all finished in fourth in their events. Gilroy’s Ian Morlang (shot put) took fifth, three inches away from a state berth. And Sobrato’s Ryan Corvese helped pace the 3200 race for the first four laps before falling to fifth place with a time of 9:21.86. He was 11 seconds off the pace for a state berth.
Morlang, a senior, was proud of his final throw, which broke his personal record by landing at 50-00.25.
“It was really exciting,” he said. “I guess I was expecting it sort of a little bit. It felt really good when (the official) said 50. This whole season was to break 50. To do it in the last one was good.”
San Benito’s Erik Rivera also competed in the shot put, finishing in eighth place with a throw of 45-11.50.
As the only local athlete who went into the finals with the best qualifying throw, Saulala struggled with nerves, she said. As a senior, who took two years off from track after competing as a freshman, it was her first experience at the CCS finals. She finished with a throw of 115-11, nearly 10 feet shorter than her qualifying distance.
“I am a little disappointed on how I did,” she said. “I kind of digressed but I think just nerves got to me. Just being here and throwing late. It is brand new for me even though I’m a senior. It was exciting. Everyone here is so intense. It was exciting.”
Saulala continued: “I decided to come back and it was exciting and it made me happy. But it was definitely a new experience.”
After her strong qualifying throw, Saulala was surprised by the pressure, she said.
“I feel like I excelled really fast because I didn’t do very well in discus freshman year,” she said. “That (qualifying distance) was a lot of pressure. It made me nervous. I knew these girls and their marks. It put a lot of pressure on me.”
The Balers’ Estrada’s high school career also came to an end Friday. The senior, who finishes as one of San Benito’s most decorated athletes with league titles in track and cross country, started strong in the 3200 but faded. Estrada bolted to the front of the pack at the start, taking an early lead.
She stayed in the top four for six of the race’s eight laps before slowly falling back. She finished comfortable in fourth place with a time of 10:48.99, good for a personal best.
Despite the strong finish, Estrada was disappointed she couldn’t stay in the top three, she said.
“Everybody has these days,” she said. “There are always new races. I tried. It wasn’t my day. They were great competitors so congrats to them. I was just trying to stay as close to them as I could. I just tried my best and that’s what I did today and this is what happened. For me it’s really good because I came from nothing. I started from the bottom and nobody to somebody. I worked so hard so I feel so accomplished in what I got.”
Other local competitors included Christopher’s Ally Foster (100-meter hurdles, 15.43 for sixth place; triple jump, 36-03.50 for fifth place), Gilroy’s Samantha Una Dia (100-meter hurdles, 15.71 for seventh place) and Christopher’s Amira Barnett (300-meter hurdles, 47.16 for eighth place).
Christopher also competed in the 4×400 relay, finishing in eighth place with a time of 4:05.96. The Cougars’ Bryan Pipkin competed in the pole vault, taking sixth place (13-00).
San Benito’s Steven Velarde (4:21.06) and R.J. Collins (41:21.86) took ninth and tenth in the 1600 for the Balers. They each missed a state berth by less than six seconds.
The Balers’ 4×400 relay team was a late addition to the competition and finished in 10th place with a time of 3:29.52.
