Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 12:26:06 -0700
From: karl steinhoff [email protected]
Subject: t-and-f: California State HS prelims - highlights part 1 (field events)

Presumably Doug will send along complete results.

All is well with the world. The State Meet is back at Cerritos where God intended it.

A nice day, though a little on the cool side for California sprinters.
Winds were constantly shifting, which didn't help the sprints, where qualifying was 1+6. <<Insert Garry's comments on time-based qualifying here.>>

In chronological order -

Women's PV
Normally, a women's pole vault qualifying round would have little interest.
But after qualifying two at 10-6 and seven more at 10-10 (which makes one

wonder why they bothered to move the bar to 10-10), Rancho Bernardo's Tracy O'Hara decided to move the bar to 12-7, one inch above Melissa Price's meet record.

A measurement showed the bar at 12-6 1/2 (everything in the meet is measured imperially, Wayne), which O'Hara cleared easily on a first attempt. A remeasurement showed the bar was now miraculously at 12-7, which was recorded as the official height. Apparently prep rules permit remeasurements, which leads us statistical geek types to wonder how we should record this mark.

The mark was announced as a "possible National record". I'm not sure what the status of Shannon Agee's 13-2 is with regard to the National Federation's fairly restrictive national record requirements. But with another good trailing wind (today's final goes at 2 pm, when she should still have a tailwind), she looks capable of going higher than yesterday's mark.

The next interesting bit was the women's LJ, when Angela Williams was interestingly moved into the first flight, rather than jumping in the final flight where her qualifying mark seeded her. I hope this wasn't a case of special treatment for her because of her superstar status. Anyway, she responded well with a PR 19-8 1/4 with a slight tailwind. And this with a technique that makes Marion Jones look like Carl Lewis. Andria Booker was close behind with her 19-6 1/2, with defending champ Bunmi Ugunleye of LB Poly third best at 19-3 1/2 into a 1.3 wind. Also have to hype my neighbor, Brianna Glenn, who was fifth best with her 18-10 3/4.

Other early field events-
Women's DT - Meet record holder Chaniqua Ross led a strong field at 167-1, with long-time rivals April Burton, Stephanie Brown and Cecilia Barnes-Mileham following at 166-3, 159-1, and 151-1. This should be a great event to watch this afternoon. Unfortunately, it's held on the field behind the stadium while the rest of the field events are going on inside.

Men's SP - Not a good day for overwhelming favorite Van Mounts. Only one fair throw of 59-1 1/4, he ended up the second best qualifier behind Dan Ames of El Capitan, who went 61-0 1/2. This was a deep event, with the final qualifying spot needing 58-7 1/4.

Women's HJ - Nine jumpers cleared 5-6, including lukewarm favorite Darnesha Griffith, who qualified in all three jump events. She's being coached here by Tony Craddock's favorite athlete (and her uncle), Al Joyner. (No sign of Flo-Jo last night.)

Men's LJ - A bit of a down event this year. I think there's only one or two 24-footers in the state. Jerry Preciado of Stagg (Stockton) had the best mark with a legal 23-9 1/4. It took 22-10 to advance.


In the later field events -
Men's DT - National leader Reedus Thurman of Gardena led the field with his 199-11. Two others broke 190, but things dropped off, as 168-6 was good enough to advance. Mounts also qualified here with his 175-6.

Men's PV - Five at 15-0, including event favorite Mark Unzueta of Lemoore, and at least five others over 14-8. (Texas, we're not, obviously.) Once again, the officials insist on going to minute tie-breakers to limit the field to nine in the finals.

Women's SP - looks like a great battle between Stephanie Brown, who improved her PR to 49-6 1/2, and state leader Chaniqua Ross. We could see 50 feet tonight, the way Brown has come on late in the season.

Men's HJ - At least nine were over at 6-6. This is something of a down event this year, as state leader Gabe Zarate (7-1 3/4) didn't make it to this meet. (Injury? nh along the way? I'm not sure.)

Women's TJ - Two 40 footers, as last year's top two finishers duke it out again. Booker had the top mark of 40- 4 3/4, with Glenn right behind at 40-2 3/4 (into a 1.7).

Men's TJ - Jerriod Mack of St. Mary's may be the state's only 50-footer this year. He qualified third here with a 48-9. Benson Jones of Clayton Valley led the qualifiers with a PR of 49-5.

Just a clarification - none of these marks will carry over to the finals.

Next up in part II - the races!

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