Senior sprinter, mile relay team do not want to leave
empty-handed
MORGAN HILL
At the start of practice, Live Oak’s mile relay of Alex Haferbecker, Jacob Daw, James Walker and Jacob Montoya chant “State! State! State!” as a goofy way to stay focused on their ultimate goal.
“People thought we were funny,” Haferbecker, a junior, said in the company of some of his senior relaymates Tuesday outside Richert Field.
Funny, but no joke. After fulfilling its other, smaller goals this season, setting a new school record and winning the Santa Teresa Division and Blossom Valley Athletic League titles, the decorated foursome today takes aim at qualifying for the June 3-4 state meet in the 4×400-meter Central Coast Section Final at Gilroy’s Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
They are Morgan Hill’s only prep athletes still competing this year, and Haferbecker, Daw, Walker and Montoya have earned the distinction. Their previous best time of three minutes, 26.4 seconds held up as the second best in the CCS for most of the season behind San Benito’s 3:19.88 clocked in April.
Live Oak challenged the top-seeded Haybalers in their only head-to-head meeting this year Saturday at CCS Semifinals, where the Acorns led after two laps before fubbing the third hand-off. San Benito placed first overall in 3:21.47 while Live Oak settled for a school record — 3:23.83 — that was good for third place in the heat and fourth overall.
“It’s a different kind of pressure now,” said Walker, who is also vying to win the 100- and 200-meter finals today. “The first pressure was, ‘We’ve got to break the school record.’ And the second pressure is, ‘We have to be faster (to) try to win that title and make state.'”
Live Oak distance coach Mike Sullivan had a feeling his 4×400 would benefit from the CCS Semifinal two weeks ago when he said, “They haven’t gotten to be pushed against anyone this year. They haven’t had to go all out.”
A little sense of urgency lifted Daw and his peers to another level.
“It was just a really cool race,” he said. “We were right with (San Benito) through the first three laps and were thinking, ‘We can keep up with them.’ It was a huge confidence boost.”
It was just what they needed Saturday after Live Oak’s school-record holding 4×100, which also included Daw and Walker, failed to advance in 12th place. Walker rebounded by taking seventh (11.15) in the 100 and tying for sixth (22.73) in the 200, but Daw missed a return to CCS Finals in high jump, placing 19th at 5 feet, 10 inches.
“It was kind of disappointing,” Daw said. “But I wasn’t as focused on the high jump as I was in the 4x(400) this year. I brushed it off. I still had the 4×400, and I knew we had a chance to do really well.”
The Acorns almost choked twice in the mile relay. Daw barely collected the hand-off from Hafenbecker, who leaped and dropped the baton into Daw’s hand after the first lap.
“He just reached up and caught it,” Haferbecker said. “It was unbelievable.”
Daw pushed his team into first place only to squander the lead on a bad exchange with Walker; he and Montoya bore down the rest of the way to secure third.
It was an obvious sign the Acorns can go faster.
“There’s probably a couple seconds there that we can improve,” Walker said. “If we’re perfect, we might have a chance of taking first.”
It would cap an impressive season for the foursome — especially Walker and Montoya, who played for a CCS soccer title in winter.
Walker has an outside chance of taking first at 100 and 200 meters today; his season-best times are within a second of the top mark in both events. But the first-year track star said either title would pale in comparison to the feeling of sharing one with his relaymates.
NOTE: CCS Finals begin with field events at 4 p.m., track events at 6 in Garcia-Elder Sports Complex.
