08.03.08
Posted in Yada Yada, Road Stories, College, WTF, Education, Worst Person in the World at 9:00 am by Administrator
what started out as me doing the san francisco marathon ended up being a tour of the northern califiornia’s universities. after i survived the LA marathon, i thought “why not san fran” but after signing up i realized i didnt want to do five hour training walks in the summer heat, so i decided on doing the half instead.
at first i was going to do the trip alone but i ended up taking two oldest sons. we took the coast route up and it was beautiful. saw lovely coastlines, surfers sailing with kites and enjoyed the cool fresh air.
after eating in santa cruz, i decided to visit uc santa cruz. i havent been there since i was in college. my sophomore year, the all uc meet was in santa cruz.
i went to uc san diego, so we got to fly to the meet. sadly, i had never flown in a plane so all summer i trained hard to win my seat to the meet. i remember having to take a physics mid-term and then jumping into a van and barely getting to the airport on time.
my first flight was uneventful and the takeoff and landings just felt like a cheesy carnival ride for the most part. it was nice getting to san jose in so quickly though.
i barely remember the race except that it was hilly and there were a lot trees. the best part of the trip was getting to hang out at stanford with my old high school friends and going to a stanford football game.
now 20 plus years later, i am touring uc santa cruz with my teenage sons. the campus sits on a hill with a nice forest of trees. the campus is in the forest. it looked like a nice place to go despite their banana slug mascot.
then my mind changed forever. to leave campus, one must go down a very steep and long hill. wouldnt you know but santa cruz’s finest sits on the bottom of the hill.
i had my foot on the brake the whole way and i have never received a speeding ticket in my life. but they got me, i dont think i was speeding but they say i was. heck, they could have stopped everyone that goes down that road. when i left they had three of us. Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
05.18.08
Posted in Schools, Championships, State, Kern Track Results, College, Track Meets, Bakersfield College, Results, Track Results, Noise Flash!!! at 11:27 am by Administrator
‘Gades’ Jackson wins state heptathlon title
The Bakersfield Californian | Saturday, May 17 2008 9:25 PM
Last Updated: Saturday, May 17 2008 9:30 PM
NORWALK — Anikia Jackson became the first Bakersfield College athlete to win a state title in the hepthathlon on Saturday when she scored a BC-record 4,590 points at the California State Community College Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College.
Photo by Casey Christie / The Californian
Anikia Jackson, shown throwing the javelin at a recent meet at Memorial Stadium, became BC’s first heptathlon state champ Saturday at Cerritos College.
Jackson, who trailed first-day leader Aysha Moultrie by 14 points after Friday’s action, took the lead when she had the top javelin mark among the 12-person field, at 110 feet, 4 inches. The javelin is Jackson’s best event and is the next-to-last event in the heptathlon.
Also Saturday, Jackson had the fifth-best long jump (a 17-0, just off her personal best) and was seventh in the 800 meters (2:38.96).
Moultrie, of West Los Angeles College, finished with 4,401 points.
Jackson also placed seventh in the only event she entered in the regular portion of the meet, the 100 hurdles (14.83).
Jackson was second in last year’s state meet heptathlon.
BC had two other athletes competing Saturday. Freshman pole vaulter Holly Moseley tied for seventh (9-6). Sophomore Shalisa Harris was fourth in the long jump (18-13/4) and ninth in the triple jump (34-91/2)
BC placed 15th in the women’s team standings. Cerritos College won and West L.A. was second.
Riverside rolled to the men’s team title with 112 points. Sacramento was second with 67.
“We’re just happy everyone goes home with a medal,” BC coach Pam Kelley said, noting that medals go to top-eight finishers in each event.
– Californian staff report
Permalink
05.14.08
Posted in Profiles, Coaches, Athletes, Schools, Championships, Valley, Grand Masters, College, Signings, Track Meets, Upcoming, McFarland, Foothill, Results, CSUB, Wasco, Shafter, Taft, North, East, Golden Valley, Liberty, Stockdale, Centennial, South, West, Ridgeview, Highland, Garces, Frontier, Tehachapi, Burroughs, Noise Flash!!!, Bakersfield at 6:47 am by Administrator
Today’s (May 14) Central Section Grand Masters Track and Field Meet glance
The Bakersfield Californian | Tuesday, May 13 2008 11:07 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 13 2008 11:12 PM
CIF Central Section Grand Masters
Where: Liberty High School
Directions: From Rosedale Highway, take Calloway Drive south. Turn right on Brimhall Road, left on Jewetta Avenue and immediately right on Patrick Henry Drive.
Advancement: Top three boys and girls in each event qualify for CIF State Championships, May 30-31 at Cerritos College in Norwalk.
Non-weight events glance
Sprints
Boys favorites: Fresno-Central’s Brendon Bigelow in both the 100 and 200 meters. Hanford West’s Vontrail Love could challenge in the 100, as could Liberty’s Isiah Purvis in the 200. Bakersfield High and Clovis East are the teams to beat in the 400 relay.
Locals to watch: Purvis is a real threat in the 200, and Bakersfield’s Emmanuel Turner (boys) and Brushay Wandick (girls) are coming on strong in the 100.
Middle distance
Boys favorites: North’s Anthony Mitchell has the section’s best times in the 400 and 800, but he didn’t run at the 400 in last week’s South Area meet, choosing to focus on the longer race. Expect him to win it. Liberty’s Purvis, Stockdale’s Daniel Lozano and Clovis-Buchanan’s James Smith could fill the void in the 400.
Locals to watch: Mitchell, Lozano and Purvis, plus the Liberty 1,600 relay team, which was fourth in state last year and leads the section by nearly two seconds. On the girls side, Ashlee Thomas of Centennial has a chance in the 800 and Stockdale’s relay team will be close.
Distance events
Boys favorites: Foothill’s Chris Schwartz wasn’t the Division I state cross country champion for no reason. He has the best 3,200 time in the section by 22 seconds. He’ll take on Eric Battles of Clovis West and Jonathan Sanchez of Clovis-Buchanan in the 1,600.
Girls favorites: Can you say Hasay? It would be the shock of the meet if San Luis Obispo-Mission Prep phenom Joran Hasay didn’t win both events. The junior leads the nation with a 1,600 time of 4:42.50 and a 3,200 time of 10:03.07.
Locals to watch: Besides Schwartz, keep an eye on North’s Cody Gragg and Candace Carlson.
Hurdles
Locals to watch: With a good day, Taylor Jackson could give Frontier its first section title. On the boys side, East’s Eddie Morrow is a threat in the 300 hurdles.
Jumps
Locals to watch: The Ridgeview boys duo of Chris Kelly and Johnny Carter hold the section’s best two triple jump marks. Collatz also is a freshman phenom in the triple.
– Zach Ewing
High school track and field: FLYIN’ HIGH
Foothill’s Ragans, Shafter’s Jelmini are two of the top high school throwers in nation
BY ZACH EWING * CALIFORNIAN STAFF WRITER
zewing@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, May 13 2008 11:13 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 13 2008 11:22 PM
On the surface, Anna Jelmini of Shafter and Dayshan Ragans of Foothill High are easy to lump together. After all, each of them represents the next harvest of Kern County’s incredible throwing crop, the next local able to throw a shot put or a discus farther than almost anyone in the country. Each is a heavy favorite at today’s Central Section championships at Liberty. Presuming they advance, Jelmini and Ragans likely will enter the state championships May 30-31 at Cerritos College in Norwalk with the best marks in California in both throwing events.
Foothill High’s Dayshan Ragans is a favorite to win the discus and shot put and today’s Central Section championships at Liberty.
They also have a presence on national top-10 lists — Jelmini has the nation’s best high school girls discus throw and the fifth-best shot put mark, and Ragans is fifth on the boys discus list.
“To be able to do something like that is pretty amazing,” said Alan Collatz, head track and field coach at Cal State Bakersfield and one of the forefathers of Kern County’s throwing success. “I mean, you know, all across the nation, they train just hard. So for someone out of this area, out of Kern County, to be so high on the list, it’s something special. It doesn’t happen all the time, that’s for sure.”
But you don’t have to dig very deep to learn that though Jelmini and Ragans have ended up in the same place, their backgrounds are about as dissimilar as can be.
It’s like a reverse fork in the road.
Just really blessed
Anna Jelmini’s entry into Kern County throwing lore started in the fourth grade at an after-school program. The earliest kids are allowed to throw the discus is fifth grade, so she started that a year later.
Her coaching has also been some of the best Kern County has to offer — and that’s pretty darn good coaching.
Dawn Dumble-Godbehere, a former state champion at Bakersfield High and NCAA champion at UCLA, started working with Jelmini in the sixth grade. John Rexroth spelled Dumble while she was pregnant during Jelmini’s seventh-grade year.
Dumble was impressed, and Jelmini was on her way.
“Anna’s always been real athletic,” said her dad, Rick Jelmini. “She’s a basketball player, been a swimmer for a long time, could have even played volleyball. (Dumble) will just tell you Anna picks things up really fast. She kind of converted Anna to a spin style, and she has good balance and things like that.”
Now coached at Shafter by Dumble’s husband, Matt Godbehere, Anna Jelmini has blossomed into a technically sound, self-analyzing thrower.
“(The success) hasn’t really sunk in yet,” Jelmini said. “Bakersfield has had some really great throwers. I’m just really blessed. I’m just trying to work hard.”
Last year, as a sophomore, Jelmini was fourth in the state in the discus (throwing a 153-5) and seventh in the shot put (41-11.5). Either of those places would be considered a disappointment this year, considering Jelmini has the best discus mark (183-11) in the state by more than 24 feet and the best shot mark (49-2.5) by about 41/2 feet.
Her 183-11 discus throw at the Bill Kearney Invitational in Salinas on April 19 set a Central Section record and equaled the fourth-best throw ever by an American high schooler.
“She’s been working really hard in the last three years, and she’s really seeing the dividends this year,” Godbehere said. “She loves to throw, she’s aware of what it’s going to take for her to get better and she’s willing to put in the work to do that.”
Jelmini isn’t yet sure where she’ll attend college, but throwing has been a huge part of her life thus far, and that will almost certainly continue.
“Sometimes you see kids sign (with a college) their senior year, and then you just don’t see their names anymore,” said Rick Jelmini, who said the family has returned more than 30 questionnaires to Division I colleges. “But Anna’s never satisfied. She’s not going to get burned out.”
The four-leaf clover
Dayshan Ragans probably won’t get burned out either, at least not any time soon. He’s only been throwing for three years.
Nope, that’s not a typo. Ragans was plucked out of his freshman P.E. class at Foothill because he was the first student ever to out-throw track coach Joe Cooper.
It didn’t take long for Ragans to figure out that throwing is what he wanted to do. Wayne Brewer — like Godbehere, a former CSUB thrower — came to Foothill before Ragans’ sophomore year and has groomed him into the state’s premier high school thrower.
“We were lucky to get him,” Brewer said. “It was like finding a four-leaf clover. Seriously, he’s so raw. He hasn’t even been throwing four years.”
But he is strong, especially in his lower body. Ragans can squat 500 pounds and hang-clean more than 300. And to boot, Brewer said Ragans soaks up information better than anyone he’s coached.
“Genetics has a lot to do with it,” Brewer said. “But he’s like a sponge. I can tell him something, and he goes out and does it. No questions asked.”
Ragans took second in the state in the discus last season but fouled out in the shot put finals. This year, he has a 20-foot cushion in the discus with a 203-7 over the next-best throw and a better-than-two-foot margin in the shot put with a 63-4.75.
Ragans has had to come on quickly to the sport, but he also has extra motivation for excelling.
He’s signed to continue the county’s throwing pipeline at CSUB next year, and he’s counting the days till the state meet — not only because those dates represent his goal in throwing, but because it’s the day he can move away from home.
Ragans said his family life can be difficult and that throwing offers an escape. He declined to speak specifically, other than to say, “I don’t want to be another statistic.
“I wake up, and it’s just like a countdown,” he said. “It’s going to be like a new beginning, coming into a new world.”
Meanwhile, a double state championship, obviously, isn’t out of the question.
“My goal is breaking that state record,” Ragans said. “… I have a lot of fun throwing. I went out, and I didn’t realize I what I was capable of.”
The paths converge
Shafter is a smaller school than Foothill, so the schools have different travel plans and often compete in separate divisions. But today, at the section finals at Liberty, Jelmini’s and Ragan’s roads come together again.
They’ll be joined by yet another Kern County thrower of the future in Stockdale’s Alex Collatz, who owns a Central Section record with a 159-4 discus throw as a freshman — that’s behind only Jelmini in the state and is third in the nation.
In the Southern Section, Burroughs junior Kayla Kovar has top-five marks in the state in both throwing events.
“This area is amazing for throws,” said Scott Semar, who coached Collatz at CSUB in the mid-1980s and then oversaw the golden era of Kern County throwing at Bakersfield High from 1987-91.
Young Alex Collatz is a prime example of the area’s recurring success. Collatz’s father is the same Alan Collatz who coaches at CSUB.
Alan Collatz and Semar have helped produce dozens of state-, national- and even world-class throwers from the county, not to mention half of the throwing coaches at Bakersfield high schools.
“It has been very successful here for many, many years, and a lot of it started with Scott Semar when he was out here,” Alan Collatz said. “Then I came out here. Throwers tend to come here. We’ve been lucky, and they’ve worked hard and gone out in the community.”
And groomed prodigious athletes like Ragans and Jelmini. And there we go lumping them together again. It’s not hard. Heck, they even use the same, spinning, style.
But Collatz is wary of pronouncing Ragans and Jelmini so similar.
“You can look at the 10 best throwers in the United States, and they all do something different,” Collatz said. “None of them are the same. This guys starts a little lower, or this guy is more upright, this guy sweeps a little wider. There is no one way.
“… But one is (Jelmini and Ragans) are hard workers. Two is they’re strong athletes. And three is they’re well-coached. You put hard work with physical abilities with good technical coaching, and you’re going to be successful.”
Different methods, different paths, very similar results. And Kern County has two more extraordinary throwers.
“There has been a lot of great throwing over the years,” Godbehere said. “… A lot of people have taken interest in throws. Is it the athletes or the coaching? Probably a combination of all of it.”
Permalink
04.22.08
Posted in Yada Yada, Profiles, Athletes, Schools, Friends, College, Signings, North, Noise Flash!!! at 9:26 pm by Administrator
North distance runner Gragg headed to Fresno St.
BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Tuesday, Apr 22 2008 8:43 PM
Last Updated: Tuesday, Apr 22 2008 8:46 PM
With cameras clicking and people cheering Tuesday in North High’s cafeteria, distance runner Cody Gragg stole one glance away from the dotted line.
“It was hard to not focus on the camera and focus on the paper,” Gragg said. “Pretend it’s not there. The nerves were coming.”
What’s even harder, Gragg said, is becoming an accomplished distance runner in just three years. That’s what he’s done, going out for track his freshman year only because he was struggling in baseball, and then for cross country the next fall because he wasn’t already on the football team.
“I was going to play football my freshman year, but I pulled my groin, so I didn’t do anything,” Gragg said. “… I went out for track, gave it a shot, and it kind of skyrocketed from there.”
He’s become one of Bakersfield’s premier runners, taking 11th in the Central Section meet with a time of 16:00 and qualifying for the state meet. He also owns a top-10 time among section runners in the 3,200 meters and a top-20 time in the 1,600.
“Darrin Sundgren and Bill Lind, our distance coaches, have worked really hard with him,” said Allan Smart, North’s head track and field coach. “(Gragg) was the diamond in the rough.”
Gragg, who chose Fresno State over Long Beach State and some smaller schools, said the ride has made him thankful for that injured groin.
“I sure like the way things played out,” Gragg said.
He was also happy for all of Tuesday’s hullabaloo — if not entirely comfortable with it.
“It takes a lot of pressure off my shoulders,” Gragg said. “… It’s a little (uncomfortable), but I’m glad they all came out. I’d rather everybody be here than nobody be here.”
Permalink
