Keith Dawson Indoor Pole Vault
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 @ Liberty HS (Brentwood)

Report from John Ambrose

photo by Joe Hartman
Josh Cusick (St Lawrence Academy, Santa Clara) from last year's
State Meet started off 2008 in fine style with a 15-07 indoor clearance

News Release:
On Saturday, February 23, at Liberty High, the Inaugural Keith Dawson Indoor Invitational Pole Vault Meet was held. Vaulters from Santa Clara to Colfax were there, along with their coaches, families and interested community members. It was a great day, especially since the event was named for Keith Dawson, a track coach and mentor at Liberty High since 1951. Keith has coached many sports at Liberty High School, as well as assisting the track coaches at Freedom High. Liberty High Athletic Director and head track coach John Ambrose was happy to see the turnout for this new event, which is a great way to start the 2008 Track & Field High School Season. It was particularly great to have Coach Dawson and his family there, as he was the Liberty High School track coach for several of the present coaching staff as well as coaching hundreds of other Liberty graduates in several different sports.

Results:

For the Frosh/Soph Girls, Yessy Marinez from Liberty took first with a vault of 7’, second went to Laura Fong from Las Lomas, who vaulted to 6’6”, a new Personal Record (PR) for her.

In the Frosh/Soph Boys division, first place went to Brian Hansen from Oakridge High School in the El Dorado Hills, with a vault of 12’, beating his previous PR of 11’ 4”. Second place was a tie between Cameron Simmons of Las Lomas and Michael DiGiorgio of Liberty, both vaulting 10’6”. This was a new PR for Simmons, who had vaulted to 9’ previously. Also vaulting in this division were freshman Stuart Boyer, in his first official meet, and sophomores Rob Palansky and Nate Lee.
For the Varsity girls division, first place went to Ashley Reno from Liberty, with a vault of 10’, second place went to Tess Balcomb from Colfax High, third place went to Jenna Yowell of Oakridge High with a 9’ vault and fourth place went to Lisa Fong of Las Lomas High, with a new PR of 8’6”.

In the Varsity boys division, first place went to a soaring Josh Cusick of St. Lawrence Academy in Santa Clara, who wowed the crowd with a vault of 15’7”, beating his previous PR by 1”. Second place went to Mike Starr of Folsom High, who vaulted to 13’6” and third place went to Tyler Bickley, from Oakridge High, with a 13’ vault. Other vaulters in this division were Satoshi Yuki from Las Lomas who kept jumping and beat his previous PR of 12’ with a 12’6” vault; Alek Hoffman of Oakridge with 11’6”; Dante Demecurio of Freedom High and Logan Dongallo of Clayton Valley, both at 10’6”, and Josh Tendler of Oakridge High at 9’.

Congratulations to all the Vaulters. And a big thank you to Coach Dawson for all of his years of dedication to the children of our communities!

Link to spreadsheet of the results

Message board! Message board!