06.27.08
Posted in Schools, Championships, Kern Track Results, Track Meets, Upcoming, BHS, CSUB, Shafter, Taft, Olympics, Bakersfield at 5:53 am by Administrator
Men’s 110m Hurdles
Thomas Mack University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA 13.74 - BAKERSFIELD HS
Men’s 3000m Steeplechase
William Nelson University of Colorado Longmont, CO 8:28.85 - TAFT HS (CE)
Men’s Shot Put
Chris Figures unattached Bakersfield, CA 20.38 - SOUTH HS (BAK)
Men’s Hammer Throw
Arnaldo Cueto unattached Bakersfield, CA 68.50 - CAL ST BAKERSFIELD - HS ??
Women’s Discus Throw
Rachel Varner unattached Bakersfield, CA 56.72 - BAKERSFIELD HS
Anastasia Jelmini unattached Bakersfield, CA 56.06 - SHAFTER HS
Cecilia Barnes unattached Bakersfield, CA 61.99 - CLOVIS WEST HS (FRESNO
california preps at the olympic trials HERE
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06.21.08
Posted in Profiles, Coaches, Schools, Kern Track Results, Centennial, Rankings, Track, Bakersfield at 7:23 am by Administrator
Drillers’ Anderson honored as All-Area Boys Track Coach of the Year
The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:35 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:52 PM
As an Idaho native who last worked in Iowa, Steven Anderson didn’t know a whole lot about Bakersfield High’s rich track and field history when he took the Drillers coaching job two years ago.
It didn’t take him long to learn.
“I knew a little bit of it last year because our athletes all the way from the ’70s would be coming to the meets,” Anderson said. “You’d find out who they are, and you’re like, ‘Wow, they still care.’”
After a lackluster year with a young boys team in his first year, Anderson decided he’d let his athletes in on what he found out. And so, the day before the league meets, Anderson gave his team an hour to spend perusing BHS’ little-known trophy room.
They responded with boys and girls titles in the Southwest Yosemite League and a top-five finish at the Central Section meet. For that, Anderson is The Californian’s Boys Track and Field Coach of the Year.
“A lot of people think track is about the individual, but all year we told them it’s about the team,” Anderson said. “And when you start having kids believe they can do it, it’s easy.”
– Zach Ewing
Renz, Jones honored as co-coaches of the year for All-Area girls track
The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:35 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:37 PM
Track and field meets, espcially as they become bigger and more prestigious, are about the individual. Just two or three quality athletes can win you a meet.
That’s what makes a league meet so special — it takes a whole team to win it — and what made Centennial’s girls season great this year.
“We had a lot of kids come through that day,” said Ryan Renz, who with Randy Jones is a Californian Co-Girls Track and Field Coach of the Year.
Kids like Jessica Crowe, primarily a hurdler and runner, who was asked to pole vault that day. She responded with a personal-record eight-foot vault and a Southwest Yosemite League championship. Or April Cacuyog, who ran herself dizzy that day.
The result was an SWYL team title for the Golden Hawks.
“As a coach, that’s what you love to see,” Renz said. “They have their best meet at the league meet, and we’ve been fortunate to have kids who have bought into that, who enjoy the team part more than the individual part.”
The championship and Coach of the Year honor is also a cap to a great career for Jones, who’s retiring.
“Randy’s a really quiet guy, and he doesn’t want much said about him,” Renz said. “But he means a lot to the whole track and field community. It’s going to be tough. Centennial will never be the same.”
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Posted in Profiles, Athletes, Schools, Kern Track Results, Foothill, Shafter, Taft, North, Golden Valley, Liberty, Stockdale, Centennial, South, Rankings, Track, Garces, Frontier, Burroughs, Bakersfield, Bakersfield Christian at 7:04 am by Administrator
2008 All-Area girls track and field selections
The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:35 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:51 PM
Athlete of the Year
ANNA JELMINI
Shafter, junior
– Dominated California with 169-4 discus and 48-3.5 shot put throws
– Could have won both state championships with any of her shot throws and three of her discus throws
– Despite the state’s best competition, easily won area and section meets
– Fired a 183-11 at Salinas for a provisional Olympic Trials qualifying mark
ALANA ALEXANDER
Centennial, junior
– Qualified for state finals in long jump and triple jump, finishing seventh and ninth
– Central Section champion in triple jump with 38-3.75
– Was top three in four different Southwest Yosemite League events: third in 100 hurdles, second in 300 hurdles, long jump and triple jump champion
ALEX COLLATZ
Stockdale, freshman
– Perhaps area’s most versatile athlete, she qualified for state in discus and triple jump
– Finished fourth in state discus finals with throw of 150-3
– Best discus mark of 159-4 ranked in nation’s top 10 and was No. 8 freshman throw in state history
– Ended state triple-jump run in 17th place
TAYLOR JACKSON
Frontier, sophomore
– Dominated hurdles in Kern County, with best time in 100 and 300 by nearly a second
– Was second in 300 hurdles and third in 100 hurdles at section meet and finished in state’s top 25 in both
– Double champion at league and area meets
AMANDA KLINCHUCH
Liberty, junior
– Area’s premier pole vaulter cleared season-best 11-6 at Central Section meet, finishing second in a vault-off
– Hit 11-3 in state prelims to finish in a tie for 13th, one spot from a vault-off for the finals
– Won South Area meet by nearly three feet
KAYLA KOVAR
Burroughs, junior
– Threw better than 150 in discus five times at state meet, finishing third with 154-10 in finals
– Finished second in Southern Section with 153-1
– Season-high throw of 157-8 in state prelims ranks top 10 in nation
ASHLEE THOMAS
Centennial, senior
– South Area champion in 800 and second in 400
– Fourth in section in 800 (2:19.77) and seventh in 400 (58.90)
– Southwest Yosemite League champion in both events
CAREY TUUAMALEMALO
Taft, senior
– Qualified for state meet in discus with 130-9 throw at section meet
– Finished 13th in state prelims with 128-1 throw
– Led Wildcats to South Sequoia League team title with top-three finishes in both throwing events
BRUSHAY WANDICK
Bakersfield, junior
– Triple champion at area meet, winning 400 relay, 100 and 200
– After narrowly missing state in 400 relay and 100 (fourth in both), finished third in 200 meters in 24.69
– Finished 21st in state, running a 25.60Second team
SECOND TEAM
Shanea Anderson, Stockdale
Sarah Baker, Bakersfield
Candace Carlson, North
Shinead McDonald, Bakersfield
Melissa Merrill, Bakersfield Christian
Monica Morley, Centennial
Cassandra Salazar, Shafter
Erica Wilcox, Liberty
HONORABLE MENTION
Boron: Morgan Frier
Foothill: Natalie Fernandez
Frontier: Kirby Ellis, Halle Meadows
Garces: Monica Guzman, Kelly Hosey, Victoria Riley
Golden Valley: Shanesha Epps
Rosamond: Jasmine Moore
South: Candice Nichols
Stockdale: Jenise Anderson
Taft: Bryanna Bacot
Shafter’s Jelmini named All-Area Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year
BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Friday, Jun 20 2008 10:33 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 10:53 PM
Everything Anna Jelmini did this year — from the undefeated season to the 183-11 discus throw to, of course, the double state championship — can be traced back to a crowded, noisy Body Xchange gym on Calloway Drive and the next set of weights.
“Every time it got hard,” Jelmini said, “I thought of the state meet. Then I kept working harder.”
That singular determination in the fall made the spring’s competitions a formality. Jelmini went unbeaten — and never really was tested — in winning state championships in the shot put and discus.
The Shafter junior, who single-handedly lifted the Generals to fourth place in the state, is an easy choice for The Californian’s Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
Jelmini herself can tell you how dominant she was with a story of how other throwers treated her — if you don’t mind her blushing.
“Everyone was really nice, and they’re like, ‘If you want to see real throwing, look at her,’” Jelmini said. “It sounds weird hearing them say that.”
Competitors so impressed they turned into fans? Yowza.
“I didn’t expect to come out and dominate right away; I had to work after it,” Jelmini said. “But once I was up there, I just continued to work to stay up there.”
“Up there” meant having top-5 marks nationally in both events, and, after a mid-season trip to Salinas, the No. 1 mark in the discus, a spectacular 183-11 that sent her into the Central Section record books and allows her to compete in this month’s U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Ore.
“It was unreal,” Jelmini said of the big throw. “It was amazing. I was like, ‘Was that me? Did that really go that far?’”
Salinas is famous for its windy discus arena, often propelling throwers to big marks, but Jelmini is no fluke. She won the state discus crown with a throw of 169-4 (no one within eight feet) and the shot put title with a 48-3.5 (winner by more than five feet). She had a discus throw well past 180 at state, but it was a foul by inches.
“She is very athletic, she’s very responsive, she picks things up well and she’s very quickly able to adjust,” Shafter throwing coach Matt Godbehere said.
Godbehere or his wife, former Bakersfield High and UCLA great Dawn Dumble, have been coaching Jelmini since she was in grade school. After she finished fourth in the discus and seventh in the shot at last year’s state finals, he primed for a breakout junior season.
“We sat down last summer and discussed goals and how we were going to get there,” Godbehere said. “Based on that conversation, we set a schedule for training. … Numbers I wanted in the weight room that I was shooting for this time of year, she was doing it in the fall.
“From the get-go, she stayed way ahead of the curve. It was exciting.”
Now, Jelmini has bigger meets in mind than even the state. She won the discus Friday at the USA Junior Outdoor Championships in Columbus, Ohio, and will compete in the shot put today. Next is the World Junior Championships July 8-13 in Poland — and the Olympic trials.
When she’s done with that, she’ll come back to Shafter, Bakersfield and Body Xchange and continue working on a career that already has her on the short list of Kern County greats.
“It seems like those other people are on a whole different pedestal,” Jelmini said. “But it’s pretty cool that I’m up there with them.”
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Posted in Profiles, Athletes, Schools, Kern Track Results, Wasco, Shafter, North, East, Golden Valley, Liberty, Stockdale, Centennial, West, Ridgeview, Rankings, Track, Garces, Frontier, Tehachapi, Burroughs, Bakersfield at 6:37 am by Administrator
2008 All-Area boys track and field selections
The Bakersfield Californian | Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:35 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 8:53 PM
Athlete of the Year
Foothill, senior
– Area, Central Section and CIF State champion in shot put and discus
– Best marks were high throws of 203-7 in discus and 63-7.75 in shot put
– Two-time All-Area Athlete of the Year headed to Cal State Bakersfield
JOHNNY CARTER
Ridgeview, freshman
– State champion in triple jump as freshman with mark of 49-0.75
– Mark would have been a state freshman record if it hadn’t been wind-aided
– Section-winning mark of 48-3 was one inch from section freshman record
MATT DARR
Frontier, sophomore
– Finished second in the Central Section with 52-8.75 shot put throw
– Fourth in discus at section meet with 157-7
– Threw discus 180-5 in the wind in Salinas and recently had a postseason shot put mark of 55-3; both are second-best in the section
CHRIS KELLY
Ridgeview, senior
– Had season-best triple jump of 47-11 at state finals to finish third
– Also finished third at section meet with 46-10.5 jump
– Long-jump mark of 22-0.5 was sixth-best in section all year
ANTHONY MITCHELL
North, senior
– Fifth in the state in the 800 meters
– Central Section champion in 800; SWYL champion in 400 and 800
– Second-team All-Area selection last year had a top time in the 800 of 1:53.60
ISAIAH PURVIS
Liberty, junior
– Finished second in the Central Section in 200 (21.96) and 400 (49.13)
– Same time in 200 gave him 16th place in the state preliminaries
– Also ran anchor leg of Liberty’s 1,600 relay team, second in section and 13th in state
CHRIS SCHWARTZ
Foothil, junior
– Ran personal-record time of 8:58.50 in 3,200-meter state finals to finish second
– Central Section and South Area champion in 1,600 and 3,200
– Triple SEYL champion (800, 1,600 and 3,200) also was state Division I cross-country champion
TYLER THOMPSON
Shafter, senior
– Finished second in Central Section in long jump and triple jump
– State qualifier in both jumping events
– South Sequoia League champion in four events: 200, high jump, long jump and triple jump
EMANUEL TURNER
Bakersfield, junior
– Kern County’s fastest boy had times of 10.81 in the 100 and 22.05 in the 200
– Finished second in the 100 at the section meet, but focused on relays at state
– Ran legs in BHS’ 400 relay team (section champs, 14th at state) and 1,600 relay team (third in section, 17th in state)
SECOND TEAM
Isiah Griggs, Bakersfield
Daniel Lozano, Stockdale
Phillip McCullum, Garces
Eddie Morrow, East
Kevin Norwood, Golden Valley
Arturo Ramirez, Centennial
George Robbins, West
Matt Sumlin, Garces
HONORABLE MENTION
Bakersfield: Collin Ellis, Walter Hunt
Burroughs: Matt Johnson
Desert: Michael Vaughan
Golden Valley: Emmett Hodges
North: Cody Gragg
Shafter: Alex Thompson
Stockdale: Jay Garber, David Mitchell, Steve Silva
Tehachapi: John Roemer
Wasco: Robert Hernandez
Foothill’s Ragans honored as Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year
BY ZACH EWING, Californian staff writer
zewing@bakersfield.com | Friday, Jun 20 2008 10:33 PM
Last Updated: Friday, Jun 20 2008 10:52 PM
His high school state championships are behind him, but Foothill graduate Dayshan Ragans keeps throwing — and continues to amaze coach Wayne Brewer.
“I was practicing discus with him the other day,” Brewer said last week. “And he wasn’t turning his feet, just trying to throw it far.
“And his arm is just ‘WHOOOM!’ You cannot teach that, you cannot coach that. I’m standing way back, and I can feel his arm, feel the wind it makes.”
Say hello — or just stand back as he creates a nice breeze — to your Californian Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year.
Ragans finished his career with the Trojans by winning state titles in both the shot put and discus May 31. He was undefeated in both events this season — maxing out with a 63-7.75 shot put throw and 203-7 in the discus — and will throw for Cal State Bakersfield next year.
“It’s like everything we worked for from the beginning of the year to the end of the year,” Ragans said. “It even goes back to freshman all the way through senior year. Everything you worked for is right there. It comes down to that point — Who’s going to be a state champion?”
All of those accomplishments shine brighter when you consider that Ragans had never picked up a shot put until his freshman-year P.E. class came around to its track unit.
“(I said,) ‘All right, I’ll do track.’” Ragans said. “Went to a few track meets, then ‘OK, it’s kind of fun, I think I’ll keep doing it.’ Then a couple more meets, ‘OK, this is something I want to do.’”
Even with his career in its infancy, Ragans garnered attention at meets with his raw talent. Brewer, who was then at North High, remembers Ragans throwing the shot 50-plus feet without spinning, the favored technique by high-level throwers.
“That just tells you how remarkable of an athlete he is,” Brewer said. “You look at (other elite throwers), they’ve been throwing since they were little. Imagine if he’d been throwing that long.”
In fact, Ragans didn’t truly take the sport seriously — often skipping practices and being held out of meets — until late in his sophomore year, when he qualified for the state meet in the shot put and finished 13th.
“If I knew then what I know now,” Ragans said, “I would have never missed a day of practice.”
Imbued with Brewer’s love of the sport, Ragans has made up for it since then.
“Everything he’s done, he’s really worked hard for and he really deserves,” Brewer said. “He deserves being a state champion. He deserves setting all the records he has. He deserved getting that 3.5 GPA. Everything.
“He’s worked hard, he’s put in the extra time. We throw, we lift, we go in the weight room after practice to jump boxes. Everybody else tries to get out of there; not Dayshan. He doesn’t care. He goes and does it. Those medals he has around his neck, he deserves every single little bit of that.”
The gold medals could increase at CSUB — Ragans, the sixth of seven children in his family, is the first to attend a four-year college, and he said he refuses to waste this opportunity.
“It’s somewhere he never thought he’d be, and he wants to take full advantage of it,” Brewer said. “He’s excited to start this chapter in his life.”
One look in Ragans’ eyes will tell you that’s true. He’s become a standout (a Central Section meet record in the discus and several school records), thanks to determination, hard work and a little bit of WHOOOM! to go with it.
“People can have a love for football, basketball, baseball, anything,” Ragans said. “I just have a love for track. I don’t know where I’d be right now if it weren’t for track.”
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06.18.08
Posted in Schools, SEYL, Foothill, North, East, Golden Valley, Liberty, Stockdale, Centennial, SWYL, South, Ridgeview, Frontier, Noise Flash!!!, Bakersfield at 10:40 pm by Administrator
Boys track and field
Southeast Yosemite League
Track Athlete of the Year: Chris Schwartz, Foothill
Field Athlete of the Year: Dayshan Ragans, Foothill
First team
Isaiah Purvis, Liberty; Emanuel Turner, Bakersfield; Kevin Norwood, Golden Valley; Eddie Morrow, East; Collin Ellis, Bakersfield
Southwest Yosemite League
Track Athlete of the Year: Anthony Mitchell, North
Field Athlete of the Year: Chris Kelly, Ridgeview
First team
Matt Darr, Frontier; Johnny Carter, Ridgeview; Cody Gragg, North; Daniel Lozano, Stockdale; Steve Silva, Stockdale
Girls track and field
Southeast Yosemite League
Track Athlete of the Year: Brushay Wandick, Bakersfield
Field Athlete of the Year: Shanesha Epps, Golden Valley
FIRST TEAM
Erica Wilcox, Liberty; Natalie Fernandez, Foothill; Sarah Baker, Bakersfield; Amanda Klinchuch, Liberty; Shinaed McDonald, Bakersfield
Southwest Yosemite League
Track Athlete of the Year: Taylor Jackson, Frontier
Field Athlete of the Year: Alana Alexander, Centennial
FIRST TEAM
Alex Collatz, Stockdale; Candace Nichols, South; Candace Carlson, North; Ashlee Thomas, Centennial; Shanea Anderson, Stockdale
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06.17.08
Posted in Road Races, Schools, Results, Upcoming, CSUB, North, Ridgeview, Clubs, Bakersfield Track Club, Bakersfield Distance Project, Bakersfield at 11:13 pm by Administrator
another big crowd showed up for the second of six races in the btc summer series. tonight, i had a negative 8 minute handicap so i figured i could run and shoot pictures. basically i would run till i saw someone to shoot and then i would run/jog again. some of the photos are pretty bad but hopefully mr. ralls got some better ones.
i ended up in the top ten, so i was able to watch most of the runners come in. i think johnathan wykoff won and probably blew his handicap tonight. brian solis (ridgeview) and ryan lucker (csub) ran well and beat there previous efforts and lina (csub) blew by me like i was standing still with a half mile to go.
ridgeview had a good size group at the race and csub was well represented too. quite a few drillers made it out as well. all and all a good run.
btw the gal pictured is renee (a 2008 graduate of csub).
more photos HERE
race info HERE
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06.13.08
Posted in Road Races, Schools, Upcoming, Golden Valley, Liberty, Clubs, Bakersfield Distance Project, Noise Flash!!!, Bakersfield at 9:40 am by Administrator
i had to almost beat chris out of bed this morning but after i feed him, he was almost alive. we meet at david’s house and loaded up the two vehicles and they left town a little after 7am.
the team is:
vam matre and edquist’s dads will be driving the support vehicles.
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06.02.08
Posted in Yada Yada, Schools, Championships, State, Road Stories, Track Meets, Bakersfield at 8:15 pm by Administrator
our driller state trip started right after graduation on thursday night around 9. all the coaches were there at 9 but no athletes.
remarkably, the first athlete to show up was isiah griggs who sang at the graduation. isiah is our sophomore high jumper who improved from 6′2 to 6′6 this season with help from coach alex (csub jumper).
slowly but surely the rest of the gang showed up. emanuel turner, brandon gooden and johnny norwood who had just graduated and now were heading to state.
we all piled into the vans and headed to cerritos and were in are hotel rooms by 1 am and tried to get some sleep before friday’s prelims.
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05.31.08
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.
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