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2006 CIF-State Track & Field
Championships

The Foundation Is Set!
Great day or prelims action includes
two nation-leading marks and plenty
of drama to set stage for sensational
closing day of action at 88th state meet!

  

      

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CIF State Track & Field Championships:
Day One barnburner a prelude to history?

By Rich Gonzalez -- Editor, DyeStatCal

(NORWALK) -- Bo Taylor became the most prolific discus hurler in state meet history on Friday. Darius Savage appears primed and capable to strip away that label on Saturday.
       All-arounder David Klech lost the glowing orange socks on Friday. He replaced them with a shining badge of courage that made it possible to safely reach Saturday.
       Zuheir Sharif found himself shaken and on the ropes on Friday. The Sac-Joaquin Section acrobat then gathered his energies and lept over 22 teenage rivals and right on into Saturday.
       If you missed the theatrics on Friday, don't be foolish enough to not be here on Saturday. It might register as the greatest prep meet on a California oval in the last quarter century.
       In a dizzying display of the abundance of talent on the Golden State landscape, two more nation-leading efforts were achieved at Friday's CIF-State Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College, with Californians now owning Amercia's best seasonal mark in 11 of its 32 events in laying the foundation for Saturday's titanic climax.
       Here's a super-quick sweep across some of the storylines during opening-day action of the 88 edition of the venerable meet:

  • Friday's most notable qualifying highlight went unnoticed by most, occuring in the secluded confines of the discus sector located outside Falcon Stadium and behind the media parking lot. Yes, the biggest performance of the day went unseen by most scribes. Emerging most prolific amid a three-person battle of future collegiate teammates, it was Newport Harbor's Bo Taylor who muscled his way into the state meet records books with a bohemoth final-round toss that flared to its contact point 213 feet, 7 inches away, slapping another 86 inches onto the all-time standard (206-05, Daniel Schaerer, The Bishop's School-SDS, 2004) and adding more than five feet to his previous best (208-05) and nation-leading mark. Taylor's tape measure job was almost overshadowed a few minutes later, as San Diego Morse's Darius Savage propelled his final attempt into a flight pattern that did not touch down until it was 212-01 away, giving Taylor a scare and setting up a highly anticipated rematch this afternoon. El Toro's Nick Robinson qualified third with an effort measured at 192-05. All three seniors will attend throws powerhouse UCLA in the Fall.
  • David Klech, prep track and field's version of Superman the last two years, found his kryptonite on Friday afternoon as a lingering tender right hamstring became a nastily aggravated strain during his heat of the 110-meter high hurdles. Klech endured rare defeat in the race, losing to Palm Desert's Dylan Nielson, 14.08 to 14.41. The lanky 6-foot, 3-inch California HS senior made his way to the trainer's table soon afterward, drawing quick treatment for a strain he described as "a 4" on a pain scale of 1 to 10. Having already topped the long jump qualifiers list earlier in the day (23-09.50, wind legal), a visibly panicked Klech fretted in the trainer's area as his primary event -- the 300-meter intermediate hurdles, where he is the national leader -- approached. An hour later, Klech emerged a bit more poised, and prevailed to win his heat but was visibly out of rhythm in his 37.45 effort. Under the "honest effort" rule in place for the state meet, Klech is supposed to compete in all three of his qualified events this afternoon. Skipping any of the three would result is his being disqualified from the remaoinder of the meet. There is one honorable "outlet" to the "honest effort" rule, however, and expect Klech's camp to explore that today. Stay tuned.
  • State leader Zuheir Sharif came up huge on his final attempt in the triple jump qualifying, stretching to a huge lifetime-best and wind legal 51-06.00 on the final round, a heroic salvage to what could have been a disastrous showing. Sharif entered the final round having gone a meager 42-04.50 in his first attempt and fouling on his second, leaving him sitting in 23rd place as he stepped on the runway for the final attempt by any athlete in the competition and then he came up huge -- and far.
  • Very warm mid-afternoon temperatures gave way to as the track events started at 5 p.m., with many athletes riding the warmth to some excellent clockings in the dashes. Notre Dame of Sherman oaks senior speedster Rodney Glass threw down the most impressive male effort, a nifty 10.51 amid a -0.8 meters-per-second headwind. With a brisk but legal wind at this back today, do not be stunned if he rockets into sub-10.30 land. Long Beach Poly's Bryshon Nellum (who toted the baton to a sizzling 45.1 anchor leg split last weekend, posted a state-best 20.94 legal clocking in the deuce on Friday also also topped the one-lap qualifying list in 47.14. On the girls' side of the sprint action, Louisville's Elizabeth Olear continued her recent torrid clip, with a lifetime-best 23.36 in the 200 and an amazing 11.55 in the 100 as it came into a steady headwind.
  • The big distance highlights came in the 800, where five boys in one heat clocked in the 1:52s and 9 did so overall. Benicia's Richard Jones topped the advancers with a fine mark of 1:52.27. For the girls, state leader Mia Lattanzi improved her mark to 2:09.61 while stunning depth poured from the heats, with all nine qualifiers timed in sub-2:11.50. In fact, three girls in the 2:11's did not advance.
  • Long Beach Wilson junior Ebony Collins appeared sensational down the backstretch at the start of the 300-meter low hurdles, with any close semblance to that pace along the latter half of the race putting Wilson alum Lashinda Demus' national record on ice. But Collins ran out of octane down the stretch and clocked 40.57. With better pacing at the start of her race in today's finals, Demus' record will fall.
  • Among the highlight field events on the girls' side in today's finals should be the triple jump, where national leader Ke'Nyia Richardson of Holy Names and Ashika Charan of Claremont will duel. The tandem combined for all five 41-foot jumps (in only five combined attempts) in qualifying, with Richardson stretching to a 2006 national best 41-10.75 wind legal and Charan going 41-09.00.


 
For questions or comments about content, contact the editors: Rich Gonzalez and Doug Speck
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