Musing from Coach O after 2013 Hornet Invitational at Sac State:

Hey track fans...happy spring break from Chico!

Week three of our track season had the Wildcats competing in our state capitol as CSU Sacramento’s Hornet Invitational. Our ladies were led by Kasey Barnett, a junior originally from Chico HS. The first three of her 4 events were all at the same time. In between her long jumps into the sand pit and her pole vaults into the foam pit she dashed over to her anchor position in the 4 x 100 relay and helped the team to a season best time of 47.94 (7th best in school history). The team of Amilia Santos, Gabrielle Finley, Robin Hannah and Barnett removed the 1980 team (Sizemore-Ramirez-Carter-Morse) from our record books. That’s CC Carter’s sister who ran 3rd leg of that ‘80 team! Barnett then headed back to the long jump where she was able to post the best LJ mark in the CCAA thus far with a distance of 18’4.25”...only a quarter inch from her PR. Then she went back to the vault and added a whole foot to her PR, clearing “12” feet. The metric equivalent of 3.65m is actually 11 feet 11 and 3/4 inches. It is an NCAA provisional qualifying mark and the 4th highest vault in school history. She is also currently ranked #4 in the nation for division two. Not bad for someone who never pole vaulted in high school! Oh, and she also jumped a season best 35’6” in the triple jump. We intend on adding to her agenda next week by having her run in the open 100 (she just won our team’s relay run-off last week).

Our hurdlers continued their red hot streak and were once again lead by Aimee Rodgers and Hakeem Dyson. Taylor Graves however made the biggest drop in the PR department. Two weeks ago her PR was 15.49 in the 100H. A week ago at Davis she ran 15.22. In Sacramento this week she ran 14.84-8th fastest in Chico State history. That bumps my teammate Traci (Ciapponi) Frazier down to 10th on the list and removes Heather (Halliday) Dickson, who was on the list since she ran 14.92 in 1995. Ciapponi ran 14.91 in 1990. Frosh Tori Mason ran a 15 flat to drop .11 from her PR as well. Then in the 400 hurdles Rodgers dropped her NCAA qualifying time of 62.48 down to 61.93. Like Barnett, she is ranked 4th in the country! Mason dropped her PR in the 400h as well and her 64.42 ranks her 8th on our all-time list (just behind Golden Sizemore).

Another frosh who continues to impress is quarter miler Aja Erksine. In only her 3rd open 400m race ever she has a PR of 58.27. Bridget McClarrinon “suffered” her first defeat, but her second place distance of 140’1” moves her up on the nationals list! Senior Brooke Shepard, who leads the conference in the shot put (43’2”) raised her season best in the discus to 132’2”. Kapri Madrid added over 20 feet to her hammer throw PR, which now stands at 146’5” and has her ranked within the top 8 in the CCAA. The 4 x 400 relay was almost as successful as our short relay but did not quite break into the record books. With heptathlete Robin Hannah held out of the relay for precautionary health reasons soph. Rachel Zunino stepped in to cover the void. Erskine led off with a 58.6 split, Mason was 2nd with a split of 58.1...nice start for our two freshmen. Rodgers, our lone upperclassman took the 3rd lap around in 57.6. Zunino, who moved up to the 800 in her freshman year is still transitioning back to sprints but ran her fastest split of the year with an anchor leg of 61.5 to stop the clocks at 3:55.88.

On the men's side of the ledger, Dyson followed up his 110HH school record from last week with a 14.78. He must have hit every single hurdle. Not too bad when an athlete considers a 14.78 a bad day. No one else in our conference has broken 15 yet. Teammates Sean Goetzl (15.15) and Adam Nikssarian (15.32) each PRd in the race. Andrew Kokinakes finished 2nd in the 400 hurdles with a season best 54.10. Decathlete Teddy Elsenbaumer ran his first 400m hurdle race in 2 years and without any event specific training. He finished 5th in a time of 55.25.

Seniors Jordan Alford-Helems and Josiah Damaris Greer each hit their best 100 time of the year. Alford’s 10.86 was actually his first attempt of the year as he was nursing a leg injury the first two weeks. The 10.88 for Greer is a personal record. Derek Nichols hit a season best mark in the discus, heaving it 152’7”. Derek Taylor got his 3rd PR in so many meets in the Triple Jump with a distance of 45’4”. Our lads finished of the meet with an electrifying 4 x 4. Chico native Nick Sloggy started off with a 49.9 split and handed off to Kokinakes (49.2) who in turn gave to Brock Kraus (50.1). Mr President (Elsenbaumer) finished up with a 49.5 and a team time of 3:18.88.

After 3 weeks on the road the Wildcats are finally ready for a HOME MEET! The athletes get to sleep in and don’t have to travel. In fact they get to sleep in all week since it’s spring break! The Wildcat Invitational will be here in Chico on Sat. 3/23. Field events start at 11:00 and track races will be a couple hours later. Hope to see lots of alumni and friends here. Our streak of alumni spotting at away meets stays alive as Hall of Famer Bob Vickney was at Hornet Stadium supporting Wildcat Track!

Coach O