05.31.08

amazing youngsters!

Posted in Profiles, Coaches, Athletes, Schools, Championships, Valley, State, Kern Track Results, Track Meets, Foothill, Results, North, Liberty, Centennial, Ridgeview, Garces, Frontier, Burroughs, Noise Flash!!!, Bakersfield at 11:20 pm by Administrator

Ridgeview’s Carter, Stockdale’s Collatz ahead of the curve
BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Thursday, May 29 2008 9:01 PM
Last Updated: Thursday, May 29 2008 9:10 PM

Johnny Carter could see this coming.
No, not the entire explosion of freshman and sophomore talent headed to this weekend’s CIF State Track and Field Championships. But at least his part of it.

“When I was around eight years old, I would get (an empty) TV box and jump into it,” said Carter, a freshman phenom in the triple jump for Ridgeview. “Then I would tell my mom that I was born to run and jump.”

To even Carter’s surprise, it didn’t take long for that prediction to come to fruition. He landed a 48-foot, 3-inch triple jump at the Central Section Championships on May 14 to win the event and head to the state meet with the best seeding mark in California. The meet begins with qualifying today at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Carter’s 48-3 jump was an inch shy of the section’s freshman record, which was set in 1968 by David Tucker of Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial.

“Nobody really knew he was going to do that,” Ridgeview coach Adam Setser said. “He just didn’t look back. He continued to be real consistent all during the latter part of the season, and then, going into that Valley meet, I kind of thought he might have a really big jump.”

Carter already has passed his right-hand man, Wolf Pack senior Chris Kelly, who finished third at the section meet and has also qualfied.

Even more amazing: Carter has only been jumping since last summer.

“My coach (club coach Kim Jenkins) put me in the California state games, and he said, ‘Go out and try it and show me something big,’” Carter said. “I was like, all right, I’ll go out and try, but I never knew I’d get where I am right now.”

And Carter isn’t the only young phenom headed to Cerritos from Kern County.

Stockdale freshman Alex Collatz is qualified in both the girls discus and triple jump, showing off the versatility of her father, Cal State Bakersfield track coach Alan Collatz.

“Isn’t that amazing?” Stockdale coach Dave Losinger said. “You don’t see hardly anybody doing that. That’s an incredible double.”

Throw in Fresno-Central sprinter extraordinare Brendon Bigelow, and you’ve got a trio of fabulous Central Section frosh.

“For these young kids to be hitting the marks they’re hitting, I have no answer for that,” Garces coach Phillip McCullum said. “It’s just amazing.”

There are sophomores to watch too — Garces sprinter Matt Sumlin, Bakersfield high jumper Isiah Griggs and Frontier shot putter Matt Darr and girls hurdler Taylor Jackson.

“It’s the year of the young athlete,” McCullum said.

The old ones, of course, haven’t given up on their dreams. Kern County’s best chance for state championships comes from Foothill senior Dayshan Ragans and Shafter junior Anna Jelmini, both of whom have the top marks in the state in the shot put and discus. Last year, Ragans was second in the diuscus and fouled out in the shot put finals. Jelmini was fourth in the discus and seventh in the shot.

“We’re looking for big things,” Foothill coach Arron Rietz said of Ragans. “He was disappointed he didn’t win both events last year. … If he doesn’t get hurt and he wants to, he’ll be in the Olympics someday.”

Also of note:

* Foothill junior Chris Schwartz dropped out of the 1,600 to rest up for the 3,200, his stronger event. He’s already won the Division I cross-country state championship and has the state’s third-best time in the 3,200.

If Schwartz can post a top-three finish — German Fernandez of Riverbank is the event’s heavy favorite — and Ragans can win both throwing events, Rietz thinks Foothill will finish in the top three of the team race. Long Beach-Poly is the favorite.

* Alana Alexander, a junior at Centennial, and Tyler Thompson, a Shafter senior, both qualified for state in the long and triple jumps.

* Likewise, Bakersfield High pulled Emmanuel Turner out of the boys 100 so he could focus on the 400 and 1,600 relays, and Liberty’s Isiah Purvis is out of the 400 so he can rest for the 200 and 1,600 relay. All three of those relay teams are capable of reaching Saturday’s finals.

Permalink