"He gave us a huge scare in the qualifying," said boys' head coach Tom Newman, "because his first throws were in the 150-foot range (which would not have qualified him for the finals). And then on his last throw he threw 191-3."

And as it turned out, Kay's biggest scare had already come and gone, because on his first throw in the finals he turned in a 203-03 mark. His performance proved to be his best one and earned him a first-place medal in the discus.

In the shot put ring, Kay easily advanced to the finals with a preliminary mark of 60-11. In Saturday's finals, his throw of 59-4.25 placed him in sixth but less than one foot away from the second-place finisher.

"He injured his arm a little," said Newman about Kay's performance following his efforts in the discus. "All the coaches are really proud. Nik had an amazing day."

Kay's only other teammate on the boys' side, Chad Blanchard, also performed well. Blanchard's 1:54.86 preliminary time in the 800-meter qualified him for the finals. There, he raced to seventh in 1:54.12.

Sally Stanton cleared 11-4 in the pole vault in Friday's trials, which placed her one spot out of qualifying for the finals.

Christine Jones won her heat in the 800 in 2:13.35 to advance to the finals. The Wildcat freshman ran a fast race in the finals by trying to keep up with the leaders and finished ninth.

"She tried to get on the podium," said girls' head coach Monica Townsend. "She ran as hard and far as she could. She just ran out of legs."

Afterwards, Jones was not discouraged. After all, her 2:12.18 time that she ran in the CCS finals gave her the top outdoor time in the nation for a freshman.

"It's just another race," said Jones. "It gives me a ton of experience. And it gives me a goal for next year�to get to the podium."

Follmar wins

Alicia Follmar made her first trip to the CIF state track and field championships in Norwalk a good one. The sophomore from Saratoga continued her string of victories in the 1,600-meter by winning her heat in Friday's preliminaries. And for her encore, Follmar narrowly defeated Lindsay Allen of College Park by 24/100 of a second to take the state title in 4:51.47.

Other local athletes

Prospect's Fermen Smith cleared 6-8 in the high jump trials, but could only reach 6-4 in the finals.

Westmont's Robert Jennings and the boys' 4x400 relay team from Lynbrook also competed in the state meet, but failed to reach Saturday's finals.