June 1, 2007

Going for gold

Mt. Pleasant, Evergreen Valley headed to State Track and Field Championships;
Silver Creek falls just short of state qualifying marks at CCS Finals

By Diego Abeloos
Editor

Members of both the Mt. Pleasant and Evergreen Valley track and field teams are headed to the 2007 CIF State Track and Field Championships after finishing in the top three in their respective events at CCS Finals on May 25.

Mount Pleasant's Jeneba Tarmoh is headed to the 2007 CIF State Track and Field Championships after she finished in first place in both the girls’ 100-meter and 200-meter events at CCS Finals on May 25.

All told, eight Cardinals, led by standouts Jeneba Tarmoh, Vashti Thomas, Stella Dugall and Matt Brown, will represent the school. Evergreen, meanwhile, will be represented by two athletes in Golde Ibia and CCS boys’ triple jump champion Nathan Goodrich. The athletes began competition for the two-day 2007 CIF State Track and Field Championships event, held this year at Sacramento City College, on June 1. Results for the June 1 qualifying trials were not available at press time.

Mt. Pleasant sends large contingent to state
A total of eight Cardinals will head to the state meet, and to Mt. Pleasant head coach Steve Nelson, that’s no surprise.
“Everybody that’s in the state meet right now are people we expected to be there,” said Nelson. “…We have no injuries, no problems, no false starts, no drops in times, so we’re happy with where we are right now.”

After missing the month of March with leg tendonitis, Tarmoh pulled through at the CCS Finals, being crowned a CCS Champion in both the girls’ 100-meter and 200-meter events on May 25. Tarmoh finished with a time of 11.77 seconds in the 100-meter, while clocking in with a 24.05-second dash in the 200-meter event. A top-ranked runner at the CCS level, Tarmoh’s performance was not unexpected by Nelson.

“Jeneba didn’t really have any competition for her level at CCS,” Nelson said. “If she hadn’t been injured, she wouldn’t really have any competition at the state level. Now she’s got to come back and there are two or three girls that can run with her, but you know, Jeneba’s a competitor and I think that this week she’s not favored to win at the state meet, but I think that if she does win, I’m not going to be surprised at all.”

Likewise, Nelson expected Thomas and Dugall to place where they did at the CCS Finals. Thomas finished ahead of Dugall, posting a jump of 19 feet and 6.25 inches in the long jump and a jump of 41 feet and 6.5 inches in the triple jump, crowning her the CCS Champion in both field events. Dugall finished second in both events, jumping a distance of 18 feet and 4.5 inches in the long jump and recording a distance of 39 feet and 11.5 inches in the triple jump. Thomas also qualified for the state meet in the girls’ 110-meter hurdles, taking the CCS Champion crown in that event by finishing first with a time of 13.76 seconds.

“I hate to say that we thought that was going to happen, but I mean, those girls are at a different level,” Nelson said of Thomas and Dugall finishing first and second, respectively, in both the girls’ triple jump and long jump. “They put a lot of work in to get to that level.”

Mt. Pleasant will also send a talented group of 4X400- meter relay runners, led by Marshay Brown and Deirdra Pettigrue, to the state meet after the group finished first at the CCS Finals with a time of 3 minutes and 54.43 seconds. Nelson noted that Tarmoh would also run in that event if the group makes it through the June 1 qualifying round, but will take a wait and see approach for now. In addition, the girls’ 4X100-meter relay team – consisting of Thomas, Tarmoh, Pettigrue and Marshay Brown – will head to the state meet as well after finishing first at CCS Finals with a time of 46.67 seconds.

Evergeen's Golde Ibia is one of two Cougars headed to the 2007 CIF State Track and Field Championships after she finished third in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles at CCS Finals on May 25. Evergreen’s Nathan Goodrich is headed there as well after placing first in the boys’ triple jump.

On the boys’ side, Matt Brown will be the lone male representative at the state meet for the Cardinals. Brown, plagued by injuries the past two seasons, put things together at CCS Finals, said Nelson. Brown posted a time of 15.05 seconds in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles, good for third place. In addition, Brown also qualified in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles with a third place time of 39.38 seconds.

“He’s a talented guy who hadn’t gotten things together until this year,” Nelson said of Brown. “We’re very happy that he got in and we wanted him to go get a little more improvement at the next level, but he’s one of a large group of junior guys that we think are going to be very successful.”

Evergreen sends two to Sacramento
Ibia and Goodrich will represent Evergreen Valley at the state meet in a total of two events, leaving first-year head coach Jonathan Hubbs with plenty of reasons to smile.

“Last year, we just sent Golde, and this year we’re sending two. We always set our standards high for everybody when we expose them to these things, so it’s nice to see all of that pay off in the end,” Hubbs said.

Ibia qualified for the state meet, finishing third in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.31 seconds, edging out fourth place finisher Dugall of Mt. Pleasant by less than half of a second. Although Ibia qualified in the same event last season, Hubbs said he’s expecting bigger and better things out of the junior hurdler this time around.

“This time last year, she made it to state, but this year she’s improved even more,” Hubbs said of Ibia. “She’s been running in the low 14s (seconds), but she’s ready to go sub-14 (seconds) at the state meet. She’s ready for that level.”

As for Goodrich, he was crowned the CCS Champion in the boys’ triple jump after posting a distance of 46 feet and 4 inches. Goodrich came into the CCS Finals meet with the section’s best mark – 46 feet and 11.5 inches – the week prior at CCS Semifinals.

“CCS trials gave him a lot of confidence because he had just jumped 46 (feet) for the first time (at that event),” Hubbs said. “I think going into (CCS Finals), being the favorite and having the confidence that he had, that helped with the mark he put out.”

Still, some Cougars missed the cut, including senior Matt Nelms, who finished in fourth place in the boys’ 200-meter dash with a time of 22.6 seconds. Nelms also placed sixth in the boys’ 100-meter event.

Silver Creek's Caleb Russom missed out on a chance at competing at the 2007 CIF State Track and Field Champion-ships after placing sixth in the boys’ high jump and fifth in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles at CCS Finals on May 25. Photos by Dan Miranda

“He has been ranked in CCS all season in those events and he’s suffered from a hamstring injury just a few weeks ago,” Hubbs said of Nelms. “I guess he never fully recovered and unfortunately, this time of the season is unforgiving.”

Likewise, the girls’ 4X100 relay team missed the cut, placing sixth in the event at CCS Finals with a time of 50.46 seconds.

“Recently during the season, they just went under 50 seconds for the first time, setting a new school record for us,” Hubbs said of the girls’ 4X100 relay team. “I didn’t even think they expected to get as far as they did and they ended up getting a bad hand-off at the last exchange, which kind of set them back. they probably lost about a second right there. So they could’ve done better, but I think it was just a treat to even get to the CCS Finals.”

Silver Creek track team season ends at CCS Finals
The Raiders, meanwhile, placed well at the CCS Finals but did not have any team members advance to the state meet.

Silver Creek senior Caleb Russom placed fifth in the boys’ 110-meter hurdles with a time of 15.29 seconds, while finishing sixth in the boys’ high jump, setting his best mark at 6 feet. Likewise, Ryan Saldivar-Ellison also missed the cut, placing eighth in the boys’ 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.82 seconds.