Meet
Recap Story
(All photos by Kirby Lee)
"The
Dream" Is Realized!
California welcomes return of indoor
track and field after three-year hiatus
By Rich Gonzalez, Editor --
(Fresno) -- "Thank
you, Fresno State!!!"
Following three years of
gloom and darkness blanketing the California region during the wintertime
indoor track and field seasons, a beacon of light sparkled across Fresno
during the Martin Luther King holiday. Fresno State coaches and legions
of their closest friends helped organize the party, and then Golden
State speedsters, jumpers, and throwers provided reason to celebrate.
Graced by a quartet of individual
prep performances we'll simply hail as "Fresno's Fab Four",
several of the state's elite teens and hundreds of their peers unofficially
kicked off the track and field season with a series of stellar achievements
while competing unattached at the inaugural Run for the Dream indoor
meet at the Save Mart Center on the Fresno State campus.
The meet highlights far overshadowed
the first-year glitches experienced at the meet, most of which were
competely out of meet management's control, while others were those
associated with any inaugural local endeavor tackling a one-of-its-kind
wooden and banked 160-yard oval requiring specialized needs. Regardless,
meet officials persevered in successfully completing their own dream
on the holiday in Dr. King's name.
Two-time defending state
pole vault champion Scott Roth helped headline the event and sparkled
in soaring to an indoor lifetime-best 16-foot, 10-inch clearance and
the #4 Californian ever on the 'undercover' circuit.
"Although it's not quite as
high as I've gone before (in outdoor competition), I am jumping much
better right now and it's still early," said the University of
Washington-bound Roth, who will compete in the Vault Summit in Reno
late this month and in at least three other indoor meets in the months
to come. "The heights will come. I'm looking for big things my
senior year.
Roth's improved speed this winter
coupled with his benchmark outstanding vault mechanics have been parlayed
into a super fast start in 2006, a year in which Roth thinks the 18-foot
barrier -- and more -- are in sight (see more on Roth in DyeStatCal
mini-feature on Thursday, 1/19).
But while Roth signaled to others
that his aerial reign is on pace to continue, a trio of talented teens
served notice they are ready for their own stints at event supremacy
-- two of them situated at Los Angeles County schools located a short
drive apart.
Diamond Ranch High's
Terry Prentice stunned the building with a final-round tape-measure
job in the long jump, stretching his 5-foot-8 frame to a big lifetime-best
24-feet even that was a four-inch improvement on his previous best 23-08
effort recorded at the Long Beach State all-comers just 48 hours earlier.
"I had two jumps
(today) nowhere near the board, but I got a hold on the third one,"
quipped Prentice, who went in the high 22's (22-10.75) on his first
leap and the low 23's (23-03) on his second trial. "I've surprised
myself lately with my jumping, but I'm working more on the multis this
year (as a pentathlete for the indoor season), so this will help my
scores a lot."
An accomplished national-level
intermediate hurdler (he also won the 55m highs here in 7.55), Prentice
admitted his specialty event is now getting serious challenge by his
recent sand pit exploits.
"I'm just having fun with it and seeing where it takes me,"
said the affable Prentice while flashing a wide-grinned smile.
Claremont
senior Ashika Charan, almost overlooked during a sensational year for
California leapers in 2005, literally sprang from the shadows with a
huge lifetime-best 40-11.50 in the triple jump here, measuring 2.25
inches farther than her state-medalist showing (4th place) at last year's
state meet. Appearing as fit and smooth as ever, Charan popped each
phase of the jump to beat the assembled field of leapers.
"(Charan) not only jumped
far, she looked real, real good doing it," snapped Track &
Field News HS editor Mike Kennedy. "She really came ready to compete!"
Ready indeed. Charan went 40-feet-plus
on all six jumps in her series, with her winning leap in the second
round registering as the national indoor leader for 2006.
But perhaps the
biggest individual breakthrough amid the prep portion of the meet came
from Mt. Pleasant HS junior Jeneba Tarmoh, who coach Steve Nelson predicted
well over a year ago would be a name we'd all be wise to remember. Tarmoh,
a junior who enjoyed much success as a club volleyball player in junior
high and entering high school, smoked some of the nation's biggest sprint
names at Run For The Dream.
First for Tarmoh came a very impressive
start to the day's action with a fine 7.09 effort in opening-round action
of the 55-meter dash, defeating Long Beach Wilson's Tasia Smith. She
came back hours later to roll once again in 7.03 to upend Smith and
Wilson teammate Shelise Williams along with Valley Christian's Khrystal
Carter and Serra's Kimyon Broom.
Then came the big breakthrough
in the final, riding an explosive getaway from the blocks and her gracefully
powerful gait to torch down the heart-of-the-infield straightaway and
trip the timing beams in 6.89, #3 nationally for 2006 and among the
top 30 prep indoor clocking in U.S. history! Among the cadre of victims
left chasing her were several of the state's biggest names -- James
Logan's Kristina Davis, Valley Christian's Carter and Long Beach Wilson's
Ebony Collins and Smith.
In each of the last two rounds,
Tarmoh steadily crashed into the restraining pits at the end of the
straight, then coolly emerged with a modest smile before disappearing
under the stands. This was a far cry from th Tarmoh who was a bundle
of nerves and self-doubt as a freshman and a talented but developing
work-in-progress last Spring. Defeating the reigning state 100 (Collins)
and 200 (Carter) champions and Davis (the state 100m favorite before
suffering a controversial false start DQ in the final), Tarmoh now must
be considered the top short dasher in the state.
Collins, the
traditional workhorse for Wilson, contested all three rounds of the
55m (fourth in the final in 7.21) and also ran 8.50 in the 55m hurdles
qualfiying, one spot away from earning a berth into the final. Collins
also placed third in the 500-yard dash (1:11.10). In other girls'
sprint highlights at Run For The Dream, Gardena's Myra Hasson bolted
away from a solid field to win the 500-yard dash in 1:07.83. Hasson,
the L.A. City Section who appeared to have grown a few inches and also
added some upper-body power in the offseason, indicated she likely will
compete indoors the rest of the way, but will rather gear up her training
for outdoors.
Long Beach
Poly's Isaiah Green, hindered by injury for much of the 2005 outdoor
season, kicked off '06 with a nice 6.47 win in the boys' 55m final.
(Fellow Poly dashers Bryshon Nellum and super frosh female Turqouise
Thompson sat out the meet, with the former indicating he is healthy
but making a smooth transition from the recent football campaign).
Saugus' Shannon Murakami
purred away from Buchanan's Lauren Saylor (5:20.31) in the middle laps
to win the mile in a negative split 5:08.10 after opening in 80 seconds
for the first quarter. Earlier in the day, Murakami filed away a 2:19
split in the 4x880 yard relay. Mt. Pleasant's Vashti Thomas topped Logan's
Tray-C Stewart on a better backup mark in the long jump after both tied
with 18-09.75 efforts for their best measurements on the day. Richardson
edged Broom (8.10 to 8.14) as well as Wilson's DeAna Carson (8.17) in
a sensational 55m girls hurdles final.
In the
boys' mile (a dizzying 11-laps-to-the-mile affair on this small oval),
Danny Mercado closed well on the last half hap to overtake and beat
twin brother Diego by a quarter second (4:28.67 to 4:28.92), although
both conceded afterward that their first foray into indoor battles was
a puzzling one, as they lost a sense of distance early on and were stunned
when the bell lap came. Both crossed the finish with much still left
in the tank. (Folsom's Jake Matthews was a late-in-the-week scratch
here due to illness piggybacking a mild ankle strain suffered several
days prior.)
Diego Mercado indicated
he would likely run an indoor meet in the Pacific Northwest next month,
but indicated Danny would not. Both are considering joining San Diego's
A.J. Acosta in running at the Nike Indoor Nationals in Maryland in mid-March
as well.
The boys distance relay
became an "over-distance" relay on the boys side as comptetitors
lost track of the lap count in the 4x-880-yard run and eventual winner
Madera was timed unofficially in 8:12.0, although meet officials at
first clocked them at 8:36 with the extra lap. In either case, the predominantly
frosh/soph but talented Madera led the race at both the official distance
and at the race's conclusion.
The festively-produced
Run For The Dream had its share of challenges, such as when an errant
shot put toss in the elite competition sailed onto the sprint runway
and obliterated lane 5, creating a three-inch gash on the wooden surface
that caused delay. Another unexpected hiccup on the time schedule occurred
when one female meet official was accidentally bowled over by a competitor
during sprint qualifying warmups early in the day, leading to a very
lengthy delay while EMS personnel were called in to assist the fallen
victim, who was transported to a local hospital for further examination.
One potentiually costly snafu was thankfully rectified without chaos
as local hero and Olympian Angela Daigle-Bowen had to TWICE win a 55-meter
women's dash final before cashing in two prize performance payouts!
Daigle-Bowen first won the final fair and square to seemingly earn a
$1,000 bonus, but a timing mishap produced no official marks. This was
a crucial (and expensive) problem because the meet was awarding a $10,000
reward to the elite (Open Level) Performer of the Meet in each gender,
and it would have been hard to justify Daigle-Bowen as the winner of
the second payout without a comparative mark.
Meet management
declared the need for a re-race (contested later in the hour), which
brought additional gasps of exhaustion and surprise from the female
dashers as they emerged from the finish pen after the first "dash
for cash". Daigle-Brown, who perhaps stood to lose the $1,000 bonus
for the win (uncertain whether meet officials would have made a goodwill
gesture and still awarded her the winning payout had the lost the re-race),
steadied herself before winning the final, which proved good enough
to emerge as performance of the meet by evening's end, netting the $11,000
combined bonus.
"To do this before
this crowd," said Daigle-Bowen, a Fresno State alum, "is a
dream come true."
For Golden State fans
starved for their own indoor affair, the same could be said for the
Run For The Dream meet as a whole.
-- Rich Gonzalez can be contacted by emailing [email protected]
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