Season ends abruptly for Live Oak’s school-record holding girls
4×100
SAN JOSE — Less than 24 hours after she decided to sign with Cal State Long Beach on a partial scholarship, Live Oak high jumper Stephanie Armstrong celebrated by winning a Blossom Valley Athletic League title.
She could have captured that during warmups.
Armstrong’s winning height -– 5 feet, 3 inches –- in Thursday’s BVAL Finals meet at Mount Pleasant High School height was almost half a foot lower than her personal-record mark and another example of how far along she is in her senior season.
For athletes like Armstrong, the real season begins Saturday at the Central Coast Section Semifinals.
“We’re pretty sure the competition’s going to pick up there,” her mother, Cindy, said. “We’re hoping it does. Stephanie does better in big meets.”
Though she has held the best mark (5-7) in the section for more than a month, Armstrong is still pushing herself daily. She high jumps once a week with some of her leading competitors in open practices at Aptos High School.
Armstrong is building up to a potential 5-8 leap at CCS or State.
“That’s my goal right now,” she said Thursday, sporting a CSULB hoodie. “I’m always trying to push myself. I’m excited to jump at Long Beach, but I want to finish the year strong first.”
Doing your best each meet is the mantra of track and field at Live Oak High School; a reminder that winning isn’t everything as long as you do your best. Should she continue doing so this week and next, Armstrong will be a shoo-in to win the section high jump championship.
Live Oak distance coach Mike Sullivan prefers not to discuss that last part.
“We’ve learned not to say anything until after the meet,” he said. “We focus on the PRs, not the wins. Anything can happen.”
Sullivan was reminded of that Thursday, as he watched the fastest girls 4×100-meter relay in LOHS history fumble an exchange that ended its season. That foursome -– Catherine Sparling, Pauline Olsen, Erika Rodriguez, Lauren Drewniany -– was on pace to reach CCS Finals, having drawn within two seconds of breaking under 50 seconds flat.
Sullivan called it a disaster but not a tragedy. A tragedy would have been if Rodriguez, Olsen and Sparling missed the cut for CCS in their other events as well.
Those three qualified in the mile relay with freshman Annalise Disalvo in 4:13.47. Earlier, Rodriguez garnered invites in the 200 meters (26.29) and 400 meters (1:00.27) -– joining Olsen (58.71) in the latter race.
“The real sad part would be if they let the 4×100 affect their other events, which they didn’t,” Sullivan said. “It’s a really tough break for Lauren – that was her only event. But that relay still had a great season and should be proud.”
The LOHS boys had their rough patches as well. The 400-meter relay of Eric Tolson, Jacob Daw, Taylor Alonzo and T.J. Ornduff dropped a baton, and the mile relay –- Tolson, Daw, Jacob Montoya, Kean Vaziry –- was disqualified because of a lane violation.
That narrowed the Acorns’ CCS contingent to Montoya in the 400 (52.48), Daw in high jump (5-10, good for third place) and Nick Sosebee in high jump (5-8) and long jump (20-07).
Sullivan said the majority of his boys and girls teams came back to practice Friday.
“The kids have great attitude,” he said. “They were upset, but they handled it well. A lot of the seniors want to keep training through summer.”
Sobrato High School made at excellent showing at BVALs on both sides.
The evening was highlighted by junior Austin Meldrum, who matched his personal-best height –- 13-6 -– to win the pole vault title.
Seniors Ralph Jackson and Alan Rios came close to winning the 300-meter hurdles and 800 meters respectively. Jackson stumbled slightly on the final hurdle to take second (39.51) behind San Jose’s Dylan Alsagoff, and Rios won the first 800 heat in 1:59.19 – less than a second behind overall winner Nathan Strum of Pioneer.
Rios entered the day hoping to set a meet record but backed off when he found out Strum — the section pole sitter in the 800 — was running in the second heat.
“I ended up just going out and doing my race. It was still a good time,” Rios said. “There’s going to be no room for fooling around next week. I take my competition very seriously. If Nathan and I end up in the same heat, it should be a great race.”
Jackson and Rios advanced to CCS in the 4×400-meter relay with Thomas Yath and Obi Mbonu, as did Brandon Mancini in pole vault (12 feet even) and Joel Rueda in shot put (42-09).
“It was a great meet for us,” SHS coach Fred Rios said. “I think we got in just about everyone we expected to. We’ll have a big group at CCS.”
The Bulldogs will have the most athletes among local teams, edging the SHS girls.
Sophomore Sarah Gilbert led the Lady Bulldogs with a third-place finish in the two mile (11:55.65) and a sixth-place effort in the 1,600 meters (5:33.06).
Junior Marissa Benjamin fulfilled her seasonlong goal of qualifying for CCS in the 100 meters (12.86) and 200 (26.53).
In field events, the SHS girls advanced Rebekah Inouye high jump (4-08) and Jennifer Hinman and Kayleen Meldrum in pole vault; both cleared 8 feet.
Saturday’s section semifinals begin with field events at 9:30 a.m. and running events at 11.
