Acorns, Bulldogs competing for invites to CCS Finals
MORGAN HIL — Erika Rodriguez’s coaches figured she has had two bad practices in four seasons of track and field at Live Oak High School.
Rodriguez has put together a dazzling collection of achievements during that time, but offdays say just as much about the senior sprinter.
“Erika is, basically, the entire leader of this team — boys and girls. So, when she comes out and has a bad day, the entire team is down,” distance coach Mike Sullivan said Tuesday, as the Acorns practiced for Saturday’s Central Coast Section Semifinals.
“Those were the worst practices,” sprinters coach Rory Cunanan added. “Even I went home sad.”
Outspoken and impassioned, think of Rodriguez as the face of Live Oak sprinting, and think of Pauline Olsen as the Hutch to Rodriguez’s Starsky — equally explosive and focused but slightly more reserved. The two are as different as their specialty events; Rodriguez the short sprints and Olsen the open 400.
Both excelled in relays and the 200 meters this spring, pushing each other in competition as they do at practice. They spent most of the offseason in the weight room and trained together on Saturdays.
“Running with Erika has been fun. She’s been a challenge for me, someone to try and keep up with,” Olsen, a senior, said.
“It helps having someone there to push you every day. That’s what Pauline does,” Rodriguez said.
Both have become mainstays of the section-championship seasons.
Olsen broke onto the scene in 2008, when she entered CCS Semifinals ranked outside of the top 20 only to make the cut for Finals and place sixth overall. She advanced to the section semifinals in three events — 200, 400 meters, 4×100-meter relay — last spring.
Rodriguez raced at semis in the 400-meter relay the last three years and tripled up in the 200 and 100 meters as a junior.
She and Olsen have graced the top-15 list of times in CCS this spring. Olsen’s season-best time of 58.19 seconds is good for seventh in the 400, and Rodriguez’s 26.11 ranks 18th in the 200.
“Their progress has been ridiculous, really,” Cunanan said. “We knew what to expect from them when they were coming out in February for voluntary workouts. We’ve come to expect everything they’ve done. They exceeded every one of our expectations.”
Olsen and Rodriguez have ample motivation to make a personal-record showing Saturday in Gilroy’s Garcia-Elder Sports Complex. Their teamwide goal is to PR each meet, but both would also like to place in the top eight and earn invites to the May 28 CCS Finals.
That they failed to advance in 2009 has motivated them this week. Their school-record 4×100 had a good chance of qualifying for finals until Thursday, when a dropped baton ended the relay’s run in the Blossom Valley Athletic League championship meet.
“With the 4×1, we were expecting to go to CCS Finals and then didn’t. It was kind of a kick in the butt for us, a wake-up call to do our best,” Olsen said. “I had a mental block in the 400 at CCS last year. That’s gone now.”
Rodriguez is vying for her first finals invite, be it in her individual races or the mile relay, which she will run with Olsen, Catherine Sparling and freshman Annalise Disalvo.
“I just want to give it everything I have,” she said. “My goal was to make finals this year. I’ve definitely pushed myself harder than ever.”
If Saturday becomes the last meet Rodriguez and Olsen run together with Live Oak, their coaches will not be disappointed.
“If they give it their best, how can you be disappointed?” Sullivan said.
“Mike and I came to this consensus: They’re going to do great regardless,” Cunanan said.
Saturday, the Live Oak boys will be represented by Jacob Montoya in the 400, Jacob Daw in high jump and Nick Sosebee in the high jump and long jump.
Stephanie Armstrong, the top high jumper in the section, should advance comfortably at CCS Semifinals, which begin with field events at 9:30 a.m. and track events at 11.
Sobrato High School has an extensive group outbound.
The Lady Bulldogs’ contingent includes multievent runners Marissa Benjamin (100, 200) and Sarah Gilbert (mile, two mile), high jumper Rebekah Inouye and pole vaulters Jennifer Hinman and Kayleen Meldrum.
Benjamin, a talented junior, has had a touch-and-go season but ran well Thursday at BVALs.
“She dealt with a lot of health issues, colds, illnesses and muscle tweaks that have disrupted her ability to train. Now, things are finally settling down for her,” SHS coach Fred Rios said Thursday.
The meet could be a breakout for Gilbert, who was ineligible to run at sectionals a year ago. The sophomore placed 18th in the CCS cross country Division II Championship in fall.
“Not making it last year might help because some of the track girls don’t run cross country, so they don’t know me and don’t know what I can do,” said Gilbert, who placed third in the 3,200 meters at BVALs. “My training has been pretty intense this year.”
The SHS boys are led by seniors Alan Rios (800 meters) and Ralph Jackson (300-meter hurdles), who will run in the mile relay with Obi Mbonu and Thomas Yath, and BVAL pole vault champion Austin Meldrum, a junior. Joel Rueda (shot put) and Brandon Mancini (pole vault) also will compete.
Rios, Jackson and Meldrum hold top-five marks in the section. Jackson is third (39.51) in the 300 hurdles.
“Ralph’s been a pleasant development,” Fred Rios said. “We knew he had some technique issues he needed to iron out this year, and he’s done that. He’s always had tremendous speed. He’s got an excellent shot at advancing.
“Alan just needs to run the race I know he can.”
Sobrato’s mile relay — seeded 10th in CCS — could make another surprise trip to finals. Mbonu and Yath will be fresh for the meet’s closing event.
“It’s playing out similar to last year,” Fred Rios said. “The 4×4 came into semifinals in a good position to improve, and they did that. It was enough to make finals. I’m excited to see if they can do something like that again.”
