June 15, 2007

STATE CHAMPS!

Jeneba Tarmoh and Vashti Thomas lead the way as the
Mt. Pleasant girls’ track team brings home state title

By Diego Abeloos
Editor

A school rally in your honor. A day at the State Capitol in Sacramento, with state lawmakers recognizing your achievements. And yes, a banner hung in the school gym honoring your feat.

Mt. Pleasant’s Jeneba Tarmoh runs to the finish line in the girls’ 200-meter dash at the 2007 CIF State Track And Field Championships at Sacramento City College on June 2. Tarmoh finished first with a time of 23.20 seconds.Photos by Dan Miranda

That’s what a team might expect after winning a state track and field championship, which is exactly what the Mt. Pleasant girls’ team did on June 2 at the 2007 CIF State Track and Field Championships in Sacramento. In doing so, the 2007 Mt. Pleasant girls’ track team was the first squad in the school’s history to accomplish the feat, leaving head coach Steve Nelson with plenty of reasons to smile.

“It feels great,” said Nelson. “They (the team) will tell you that I’m the most nervous guy in the world when it gets to championship qualifying time because we’ve had so many things in the last 10 or 15 years that just kind of fell apart. …It’s been a big, big bucket of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

Still, all was not so rosy when the day started out for the Cardinals. During the team’s first track event on June 2, the girls’ 4X100 relay, a costly error on the final handoff in the race erased a second place finish, with state officials disqualifying the run. In short, Deirdra Pettigrue, runner in the final leg of the race, was the unfortunate recipient of bad timing when a piece of tape placed on the track to signal her sprint takeoff, blew away just as Marshay Brown (third leg runner) approached behind her. Pettigrue soon found Brown running right behind her amidst the confusion, leading to a handoff prior to entering the exchange zone, while Pettigrue also briefly drifted out of her lane during the exchange – two violations that led to the disqualification.

Despite the gaffe, Nelson said he was still confident that the rest of the day would fare better for the Cardinals.

Tarmoh runs through the finish line in the girls’ 100-meter dash. Tarmoh finished first with a time of 11.27 seconds.

“Obviously ‘damn’ is the first word that comes out of your mouth,” Nelson said of his reaction to the disqualification. “But team-wise, I wasn’t as concerned as I would’ve been. …We had a lot of other things that could come about.”

In fact, the disappointment felt by the disqualification might have been a blessing in disguise.

Vashti Thomas, who later went on to place second in the girls’ triple jump (42 feet and 3.25 inches) and third in the girls’ long jump (20 feet and 1.5 inches), said she used the anger she felt from the disqualification as a motivating tool the rest of the way. Teammate Stella Dugall, a senior who will head to CSU Northridge in the fall on a full track and field scholarship, also competed in the finals of the girls’ triple jump on June 2, finishing ninth with a mark of 39 feet and 9.5 inches.

Thomas’ anger certainly paid dividends in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles, where the junior set a new National Federation record with a 13.03-second performance, en route to her first individual state title.

“I was just so mad that we got disqualified in the 4X100,” said Thomas. “…I was going to do the best I could to take all my anger out on the hurdles and it turned out to be a really great thing.”

Nelson said motivation, whether by anger or joy, is nothing new to Thomas.

Mt. Pleasant's Vashti Thomas flies through the air in the girls’ long jump event. Thomas finished third in the long jump, second in the triple jump and set a new National Federation record with a time of 13.03 seconds in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles.

“She does really well when she’s either super, super happy, or super pissed off,” Nelson said of Thomas. “…I have to give credit to (hurdles coach) Angela Hill for that. Angela will always say, ‘take that away and take it out on the track.’”

As for the record-setting time, Thomas said she was in a state of disbelief upon hearing the news.

“When I heard the time, I was like, ‘I really ran that?’” Thomas said of her record-setting pace in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles. “…I don’t know. I don’t have words for it.”

Nelson said one of the key differences to the girls’ team this season has been Thomas’ ability to take her events to an “elite level.”

“We knew as a freshman that she had the ability to be a 43-foot triple jumper, a 13-second hurdler, and be a 20-foot long jumper,” Nelson said of Thomas. “It’s one of those things where we told her over and over again, ‘as soon as you decide that you want to do it, it’s going to happen.’ …We’ve known that she’s had this ability. As an athlete, someone can tell you that you can do something, but not only do you have to believe in yourself, you have to kind of do all the little things that you don’t want to do.”

Senior Jeneba Tarmoh added two more individual state titles to her high school career, as the University of Tennessee-bound runner defended her crown as the 2006 100-meter and 200-meter champion by posting first place finishes in both events on June 2. All told, Tarmoh posted a time of 11.27 seconds in the 100-meter dash, and quickly followed up that performance by clocking in with a time of 23.20 seconds in the 200-meter dash later that day. Tarmoh’s time in the 100-meter dash was the seventh fastest time ever posted in the U.S.

Mt. Pleasant's Stella Dugall flies through the air during the girls’ triple jump event at the 2007 CIF State Track And Field Championships in Sacramento on June 2. Dugall finished ninth in the event. Photo by Dan Miranda

When asked how it felt to repeat as a champion in both events, Tarmoh said, “It’s a big relief.”

Asked to elaborate, Tarmoh went further, noting that a trying season in which she suffered from tendonitis for a month during the regular season, as well as the added pressure of trying to repeat as a champion, was finally over.

“The relief brings a lot of joy,” Tarmoh added. “I’m really happy. I’m so happy and it hasn’t really hit me yet.”

Like Thomas, Tarmoh said the disqualification in the 4x100 event gave her some added motivation for the rest of the day.

“It gave me a lot of motivation,” Tarmoh said of the disappointment felt after the 4X100 relay. “It was really hard to come off of that, because the same thing happened last year. I dropped the baton (last year). It was just like, ‘is this a curse on Mt. Pleasant or something?’”

Nelson said Tarmoh’s performance at the state meet was the picture-perfect end to a stellar high school career.

“It’s a fantastic way to finish out her (high school) career,” Nelson said of Tarmoh. “I haven’t seen her happier than she’s been in the past week or so.”