CIF-State Track and Field
Championship Prelims

Day 1 Recap Story

"Move over, Bryshon. You've got company."

By Rich Gonzalez
Editor, DyeStatCal
(SACRAMENTO) -- Move over, Bryshon. You've got company.
      Faaaaaaast company.
      With all eyes focused on Long Beach Poly's Bryshon Nellum in the opening stanza of the two-day CIF-State Track and Field Championships, it was fellow Southlander Jeshua Anderson who nearly stole the show.
Anderson, the senior hurdler who blossomed onto the elite scene late last year, missed breaking among the oldest of national records by mere whiskers, clocking a state-meet all-time best 35.34 seconds to highlight the preliminaries action at the 89th edition of the star-studded meet.
      Nellum, the USC-bound long sprint sensation, also etched his name into the record books with his wind-aided 20.45 clocking in the 200-meter dash prelims ranking as the fastest ever deuce in the Golden State under any conditions.
     Girls highlights centered on Northern California stars Jamesha Youngblood and Ke'nyia Richardson. Youngblood, the senior star from Hercules HS, bettered her nation-leading mark in the 300-meter low hurdles (by 0.02 seconds to 41.21) and her wind-aided 21-07.00 bound in the long jump was the best in America under all conditions; she also holds the legal national yearly outdoor best at 21-06.00. Richardson, the fine 12th grader from Holy Names of Oakland, exploded for an all-conditions yearly best 43-11.00 in the triple jump which also ranked as the #6 all-conditions mark in prep history.
     The often blustery winds and late-evening chill aided some marks while hindering others. The short sprints and high hurdles races benefited, while the lap sprints and distance races were at times affected. Varying wind directions left conditions in the discus a mixed bag all day, while the horizontal jumpers were clearly affected by their runway direction (girls were helped by the winds; boys faced brisk currents). In the high jump qualifying, the boys had a near-ideal afternoon setup while the girls were tested in nighttime competition by winds, cold and a darkly lit apron.
     Other notable news in opening-day action including the tremendous depth showcased in several events, which meant the qualifying cutoffs were especially tough to achieve.
     In the girls triple, considered the premier event in the meet, a measurement of 39-09.50 was required to advance to Saturday's 9-person finals, leaving a 39-08 competitor at home! For the boys, the high hurdles was the toughest survival-of-the-fittest exercise. All lanes will be filled for the final with athletes that raced 14.17 or faster in qualifying, with a wind legal 14.20 performer being left behind on the sidelines!
     Additionally, it took 10.63 to make the 100-meter dash boys final and 4:14.00 to punch a ticket into the boys 1600m final. A time of 11.86 was needed to earn a return invitation in the girls 100.
     "Wait a minute .... I thought this was just the prelims," track and field historian Jack Shepard joked aloud. "At this rate, they should just count these time as the finals."
     Clearly, however, the news of Day One centered on Taft's Anderson. His meteoric late season rise in the event in 2006 left some observers remarking that the 35-second barrier -- let alone George Porter's revered 35.32 national record from 1985 -- might come under attack this season. It took a while, but those lofty prognostications finally began taking shape.
     Situated in lane 5 of the first of three heats, Anderson reacted like a panther to the starter's gun, powering from the blocks and toward the first hurdle. He powered through it with such aggression that it left his cadence a tad off for the second hurdle, which saw him noticeably adjust slightly in losing some valuable slight momentum.
     From there, however, the burly star was perfect, measuring his strides astutely in churning over the barriers. Noted split hand timer Karl Steinhoff caught Anderson at 11.9 seconds through the first 100 meters and then at 23.0 at 200 meters. It was quickly becoming clear that we might see soemthing very special. Anderson stalked the final two hurdles with precision, then barreled across the finish as we counted off in our minds: 33.... 34... 35 ...
     Then the instantaneous report shot from the scoreboard: "35.35". Two seconds later, the final official reading adjustment: "35.34" The second-fastest time in the nation (just 0.01 behind Texas' Robert Griffin, who bolted 35.33 three weeks ago) and the third fastest prep ever (by only 0.02 behind Porter, who set his mark at an in-season meet). Anderson had the state-meet record, the crowd of the crowd, and all the spotlight.
     But that didn't last long.
     The next boys event on the track was the 200-meter dash, with Nellum already sharing last week that among his goals at the state meet was to break the state record 20.50 that he missed by just 0.08 seconds the weekend prior.
Nellum, who helped power the Jackrabbits into the 4x100 meter finals and also toured the oval in 47.05 in the 400m prelims, blasted from the blocks in lane 5 in the deuce. He effortlessly waddled around the curve and into the backstretch, hiss signature arm motion whirring in front on the crowd as the pedalled quickly toward the finish. Once he crossed the finish line and the official time careened off the scoreboard, what remained of the moderate opening-day crowd (estimated at about 6,000 spectators) burst into ooooohs and aaaaahs: "20.45"!
     The only remaining question was the wind reading. Would it register at or under the allowed 2.0 meters-per-second for record purposes? From inside the press box, the view of windbreakers mildly rustling in the wind and the appearance of jackets everywhere didn't make the prospects promising. Sure enough, the anemometer meadured the wind flow at +3.5 mps, well over the allowable and begating any official record. However, the performance was the fastest ever in the state under any conditions, bettering the previous standard by Olympian Quincy Watts (20.50 at altitude) achieved 20 years earlier. In a coincidental tie-in between Nellum and Anderson, Watts also attended Taft High, which is located in Woodland Hills.
     Perhaps all three will have another common link by meet's end: state recordholders. Watts has his. Anderson is 0.02 away and Nellum is 0.08 away. Stay tuned.

  #  #  #

Message board! Message board!