Gilroy
– Lance Wolfsmith walked gingerly after winning the invitational
1,600 at the 37th annual Avis Kelley Invitational.
Gilroy – Lance Wolfsmith walked gingerly after winning the invitational 1,600 at the 37th annual Avis Kelley Invitational.
“My hammies are fried,” he said to nobody in particular.
Perhaps the Sobrato sophomore had good reason to have sore hamstrings. After all, he had just lowered his personal best in the 1,600 by almost eight seconds, finishing in 4:21.68. And yet there was still work to be done an hour later when Wolfsmith was to compete in the 3,200.
There was no personal best for Wolfsmith in the 3,200, but there was another victory, in 9:53.51. This time Wolfsmith had to repel challenges by Palma’s Tyre Johnson and Bellarmine Prep’s Kyle Tuttle, neither of whom had run in the 1,600.
Wolfsmith was one of the stars of the Avis Kelley meet Saturday at Gilroy High School. In the seeded races in the afternoon, Live Oak sophomore Olivia Duran won the 3,200 and didn’t even know what she had accomplished.
“Wasn’t that the frosh-soph race?” Duran asked Acorn coach Dean Raymond.
There was no frosh-soph competition for the girls. Thus, her 12:27.1 stood as the winning time.
“It was pretty hot out there,” said Duran of the 90-degree weather when she ran Saturday afternoon. “The sun was beaming on me. I would have liked to do better but I was happy to win.”
The heat of the day was over when Wolfsmith ran in the evening. But the competition was stiffer since this was the invitational portion of the event, and only the top-nine times qualified.
Wolfsmith was seeded sixth in the mile, more than six seconds behind Enterprise senior Eric Malain who had beat him last year in the 1,600.
Malain set the pace early, but Wolfsmith remained close on his heels. When the stretch run came, Wolfsmith had more in reserve.
“He set a fast pace,” Wolfsmith said. “He went out fast and I wasn’t going to fall behind. I had to kick at the end. It’s a PR so it’s not like I left anything at the end.”
He had enough in reserve to come back in the 2-mile. Only this time a PR was not on his mind.
“I went for the win,” Wolfsmith said. “My legs are a little tired. I am happy with the way I ran.”
A number of other Sobrato athletes had strong meets. Sophomore Alex Meldrum won the seeded 300 hurdles in 42.70. Junior Abbi Devaraj was second in the seeded 1,600 in 5:31.91 and third in the invitational 3,200 in 12:05.48. Freshman Alan Rios was third in the seeded 1,600 in 4:37.4 and fifth in the invitational 800 in 2:00.03.
Live Oak senior Josh Levy ran a personal best 4:44 in the seeded 1,600 race, doing six seconds better than his previous best time. Also, Acorn freshman Erika Rodriguez was fourth in the seeded 100 at 13.59 and fifth in the 200 at 28.18.
Male athletes of the meet were Thomas Phillips and Steve Powell, both of Bellarmine. Phillips won the 100 and 300 hurdles, and ran a leg on the Bells’ winning 4 x 400 relay team. Eileen Nguyen of Milpitas, who won the 200 and 400, and Jenica Hadley of Soquel, who set a record in the discus with a toss of 142-8 and won the shot put, were female athletes of the meet.
