Competition could lift Armstrong, Rios to another level
MORGAN HILL — From Mount SAC and Arcadia, to Top 8 and Central Coast Section Finals, the biggest meets have summoned the best in Alan Rios and Stephanie Armstrong this spring.
The ability to feed off competition has allowed the two track and field stars, Morgan Hill’s brightest, to advance as far as possible in their senior year.
The biggest meet starts today in Clovis.
Having fulfilled their career goals last week at CCS Finals, Armstrong and Rios are heading to the CIF State Championships in the best shape possible mentally and physically. They are facing the best prep athletes in California under no pressure — and are not just happy to be there.
Armstrong wants to add to her section title in high jump by matching Live Oak High’s all-time best height of 5 feet, 10 inches.
“That would be the perfect way to go out,” she said.
Rios is eager to see where he stacks up in one of the fastest 800-meter fields in state history. It includes the nation’s top prep half miler, Sean Krinik of Valencia.
“To say you were a part of that and ran your best time; that’s the cherry on top for my season,” said Rios, who took silver at CCS Finals in one minute, 54.34 seconds.
Preliminaries are scheduled to begin with field events at 3 p.m. and track events at 5 in Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School. The championship portion of the meet will be held Saturday.
Though they will miss their respective graduation ceremonies today, both locals were honored individually this week; Armstrong at Live Oak’s end-of-season awards barbecue Wednesday, and Rios during Sobrato High’s graduation rehearsal Thursday.
After his personal-record performance in CCS Finals, Rios was anxious about missing graduation at first. He wondered if he had a bigger race in him.
“I didn’t want to go down there and regret the whole thing,” said Rios, who plans to walk on at UCLA next year. “The other side of me didn’t want to see all these guys having amazing times. That made it a no-brainer.
“I’m going to run with the same attitude I had at CCS, where (today) could be my last meet. I’ve never been more excited.”
Undefeated this spring, Armstrong is confident she will surpass her PR of 5-7, the ninth-best mark in the state.
“She’s very calm, very focused on this meet,” her mother, Cindy said. “It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.”
This year, Armstrong has improved her previous-best mark by almost half a foot.
“Competition makes me want to jump as well as the other girls,” the future Cal State Long Beach jumper said.
Armstrong and Rios focused on perfecting mechanics this week.
Rios is seeded 21st.
“Alan’s in the best shape possible,” his’ father, Fred, said. “He has peaked right on schedule, where he’s PRing at the end of the season. You just hope that it happens again.”
