With nearly
4,500 high schools in California, and with our state one of only four in the
country with just a single division, it's very hard to qualify for the
California State Track Meet. Out of San Diego, only three athletes (plus a few
who matched the state performance standard) in each event qualified for the
State Prelims. Between 9 and 12 athletes out of the state advanced to the
finals held the next day. To get to the coveted Podium Ceremony, an athlete
must be among the top six finishers. Only the Nation's elite stand on the top
step. Before last week's State Meet,
Coronado had only two athletes make it to the podium. Jamie Klages tied for
fifth in the high jump in 2005 with a height of 5 feet, seven inches. In 2015
Erik Armes placed fifth in the 1600-meter run with a time of 4:10.09. Only one
other in Coronado's history made it to the finals. That was Samantha Piper in
1998 who placed eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:14.13.
At last
week's State Meet, held at Buchanan High school in Clovis California, Alysah
Hickey was among the state's top athletes and was competing in both the high
jump and the long jump. One of the problems for the few athletes who are
proficient in both the high jump and the long jump is that the two events usually
begin at the same time. The long jump is a sprinters' event while high-jumpers,
at the higher levels, tend to be specialists. At the state meet, Alysah was the
only girl competing in both events at the same time. On Friday, during the
warm-up for the prelims, both Alysah and our other female qualifier, Ruthie
Grant-Williams, noticed that they were slipping on take-off. The left side of
the take-off area was a little slippery, and Alysah didn't have her high-jump
shoes with her. Usually, she competes in both the long jump and high jump
wearing the same shoes. A high jump shoe has four extra spikes in the heel.
Fortunately, one of Alysha's competitors wore the same size shoe and let her
use them for her jumps. The goal at the prelims was to narrow the field down to
12 jumpers to compete in the finals the next day. As it turned out, exactly 12
jumpers cleared the second height of 5 feet 5 inches, so they stopped the
competition at that height. This was fortunate because now Alysah could
concentrate on the long jump. Although both events started at 3:00 PM, Alysah
was in the third long jump flight which started after she qualified for the
high jump finals. The top 12 jumpers out of the three flights would move on to
Saturday's finals based on the three jumps each was allowed in the prelims.
When Alysah got her take-off mark there was a tailwind. However, when she
jumped the wind had died down. Both of her first two attempts were over 20 feet
but in both cases her take-off foot was slightly over the line and neither
counted. She had but one attempt left to move on. Her new long jump coach,
Brazilian Olympian Jadel Gregorio, told her to move her take-off mark back
about six inches. This did the trick, she hit the board with inches to spare
and soared out to the top qualifying mark of 19 feet 2.5 inches. Our other high jumper, Ruthie, didn't clear
the opening height but she had a great year with a PR of 5 feet, 5 inches to
tie for the third-best mark in San Diego this season. Our third state meet qualifier was Ian Hurlburt
in the 800 meter run who ran 1:54.94 but missed moving to the finals by less
than a half second. Ian also had a great season and comes away with the top San
Diego Section mark of 1:54.22 which is a new school record. Ian will
matriculate at UCSB next year. At the Saturday Finals both the high jump and
long jump started at 5:00 PM. This time there were no flights in the long jump
so Alysah had to juggle both events at the same time. One advantage in the long
jump is if you hit a big mark early in the competition you can pass the rest of
your jumps. Friday's qualifying marks were not brought forward. At the finals each of the 12 jumpers were
allowed 3 tries. The top 9 were then allowed 3 more attempts with the top marks
coming out of any of the jumps. On Alysah's first attempt she hit 19 feet 3.5
inches to immediately take the lead. However, there were three other girls also
over 19 feet, so at that point it was too close for comfort. After two more jumps, interspersed with high
jump attempts she didn't improve her mark, but she did retain the lead. Sometimes the only way to tell whether she
was getting ready for the high jump or the long jump was the color of her
shoes; the borrowed high jump shoes were green; her long jump shoes were red.
Our high jump coach, Kerry Elders, was on one side of the field coaching her
from the end zone while Jadel was coaching from the stadium. Jadel wasn't hard
to spot from the field as he's 6 feet 8 inches tall. When the last three long
jumps started. the high jump was in its final stages. Since she already had the
lead, Jadel told her to pass until the last jump so she could concentrate on
the high jump. Once the high jump was over she came back to the long jump pit,
already the winner, as no one had exceeded her initial jump. She had nothing to
lose so she went all out and cleared 19 feet 9.75 inches to win by nearly 7
inches.
This was a wind-legal Personal Record, a school record, and is the fifth all-time best jump for San
Diego County. Two-Time Olympic 100-meter champion, Gail Devers, has the top
mark at 20 feet 7 inches. Alysah plans to go for that next season. Her long
jump victory broke a 3-year drought of State Meet Track and Field Champions for
the San Diego Section. The last State Champion was Madison’s Dotun Ogundeji who
won the shot put in 2015. At big meets,
like the State Championships, it doesn't take too many top athletes for a team
to place high in the rankings. Alysah scored enough points to put Coronado
among the top 10 girls’ teams. We tied for eighth place with the next San Diego
Section team, La Costa Canyon, coming in 43rd.
