Before the final turn, Kolton McCrossen was in fourth place in the 400-meter run of the Blossom Valley Athletic League Finals Thursday at Westmont High. With a Central Coast Section Trials berth on the line, it was now or never for the Live Oak High sophomore.
“I wanted to make CCS bad and just pushed it,” he said. “Going into the race, my goal was to just get a top 8 time and qualify. I knew I had to run the race of my life.”
And that’s exactly what McCrossen did, crossing the line in a personal-record (PR) time of 50.88 seconds to win the second of two heats and earn an automatic spot in the CCS Trials next Saturday at Gilroy High. In the process, McCrossen broke the school’s frosh-soph record in the event. Talk about peaking at the perfect time: McCrossen produced a huge PR, something he’s accomplished twice in the last three meets.
McCrossen credits one of Live Oak’s coaches, Cindy Armstrong, for helping him peak at this point in the season.
“Mrs. Armstrong has been a wonderful and great coach,” he said. “She runs good taper workouts for me, and they turn out great. I had a week of tapering, didn’t have back to back meets and I felt stronger than ever.”
So did the Acorns 4×100-relay team of Greg Sperry, McCrossen, Christian Guary and Cole Davis, who also nailed a big PR of 44.93 to finish in fifth place overall to earn a spot to sectionals. The key for the squad was clean baton exchanges. Also, this was just the second or third time the same four runners were racing together, and the improved chemistry was evident.
“We had a pretty bad handoff last time, and this time we had good ones,” Sperry said. “We worked all week on handoffs and getting them off clean. Now that we have a set team, it helps with chemistry. We wanted to qualify for CCS, and we’re excited with our time.”
Audrey Reed, a precocious freshman, ran arguably the best race of her life by winning her heat in the 800 and posting the second fastest time overall in a PR of 2 minutes, 24.95 seconds. Reed covered the first 400 in 1:11 and was comfortable in third place. But once the final bell lap sounded, Reed made her move. She overtook one runner with about 300 meters to go before making the winning move with about 110 meters remaining.
In the end, it was Reed who displayed the greatest strength and stamina.
“It was my best performance,” she said. “The other girls started off really fast, and I was just staying behind to save a kick for the end. I knew they were slowing down on the final lap, and I had to catch them.”
It was sterling meet for Reed, who also placed seventh in the 1600 in a PR of 5:17.88. Sobrato’s Emily Harris earned the last CCS qualifying spot in the 1600, finishing in eighth place in 5:26.97. Acorns senior Kaylah Grant cemented herself as one of the great distance runners in school history, winning the 3200 league championship for the fourth time and the 1600 for a third time.
Although neither of her times—Grant ran the 1600 in 5:11.26 and the 3200 in 11:16.56—were PRs, Grant feels she’s getting stronger as the season goes along.
“I haven’t had great races this year, but I am getting better,” she said. “I’m doing good with my interval workouts and hopefully I’ll be PR-ing at the end of the season. I’m hoping to go sub 5:05 (in the CCS Trials), and I felt good running (the 1600).”
Grant was happy that she delivered consistent lap times, which was one of her goals entering the race. Freshman sensation Karlie Lema did what she needed to do in her three individual events, qualifying in the 100-meter dash, long jump and 100 hurdles. Lema posted a time of 12.35 seconds, a solid mark considering she was running into a headwind. Lema won the long jump in 17 feet, 11 ½ inches. It was in the hurdles where Lema avoided disaster, as she hit the first hurdle hard and somehow managed to recover to finish with the sixth best time in 16.52 seconds.
Since this was Lema’s slowest time of the season, she thought she was out of the running for a CCS berth.
“I didn’t think I made it,” she said. “I was really nervous in that race, but at least I made it to CCS.”
Lema knows she can use the race as a learning experience going forward. She can take solace in the fact that most competitors wouldn’t have survived after hitting the first hurdle; however, Lema isn’t just the average athlete. She displayed perseverance in rebounding to compete for another day.
Lema also played a pivotal role in Live Oak’s 4×400-relay team, as she teamed up with Tessa Seda, Sarah Jacob and Reed to take fifth overall in a PR of 4:13.86. Acorns senior Brenden White, who was coming off a strong performance in the BVAL West Division Finals, took fifth in the discus in a season-best 133 feet, 9 inches, and seventh in the shot put in 43-11. Brandon Miner, who was also coming off a spectacular performance in the West Division Finals, took seventh in the 110 hurdles in 16.81.
In the West Valley Division Finals, Miner won the 110 hurdles in 16.56, the 300 hurdles in 43.59 and took second in the high jump in 5-8. Miner has made steady progression in all of his events throughout the season.
“I’ve hit a PR in almost every single meet,” he said. “I feel my technique in the hurdles is really good, and now I just have to work on being consistent. I’m getting consistent getting over each hurdle and understanding the form that goes into it because I’ve been doing it since the sixth grade.”
Miner only started competing in the 300 hurdles this season because he was feeling a bit down during the team’s season-opening scrimmage.
“I did really bad in the 110 race and decided to cheer myself up, so I did the 300 for fun,” he said. “I ended up doing good, and my times have kept dropping.”
