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| Fall River's Brent Handa, after two times as a bridesmaid, takes home the 3200m title |
Photos by Tom Cushman
COTTONWOOD — At the beginning of the week leading up to the Northern Section CIF final, Durham High sprinter Corey Arnold lost his spikes bag. The senior, pushing for victories in both the 200 and 400 meter races, had to use teammate Cody McHargue's shoes. It was hard to tell anything was off for Arnold on Friday. Arnold convincingly won both his sprints wearing McHargue's jumping spikes, then kept the Durham 1,600 relay team in contention to cap off an astonishing day at the section championship Friday at West Valley High.
Like Chico phenom Kiara Reed and the Panther boys 1,600 relay squad, he put on a show of raw speed and qualified for the state meet next week. The Trojan sprinter dominated the 400, crossing first with a 49.26-second mark. In the 200, he just edged Chico's Rene Cuellar, whose 22.7 was not quite four-tenths of a second behind Arnold's 22.33. "The goal was just to beat everyone out of the first turn and put it away early," Arnold said. "It would have been nice if I would have had my own spikes." The most thrilling moment of the night came, however, in the final event. The Panthers won their third straight section title in the boys 1,600 relay, but Durham made them sweat a bit. After jumping to a big lead after the first three laps, Chico appeared to be in control when Arnold — who sat barefoot on the infield while McHargue ran his leg, then changed into his teammate's shoes before his own — tore through traffic in an attempt to catch Cuellar, who had already opened up a 30-meter lead on the back straightaway. Arnold got within about 10 meters and looked as if he might catch Cuellar at the third turn, but the Panther anchor held him off to give Chico a 3:26.90 victory.
It was a good night for the Panthers, who saw Reed defend her 400 title for the fourth consecutive year in a demolition of the rest of the field. She came across in 57.25, a stadium record. In the 200, she had even more motivation — Paradise's Lindsay Witteman, who won the 100 in 12.81, had defeated convincingly Reed just last week at the distance. "I said, 'I can't handle losing to her again.' I could hear her coaches telling her, 'It's your section title, it's yours,'" Reed said. "I decided to go take it from her." She did just that, edging Witteman at 25.65, a personal record for Reed. The two hugged immediately after an intense stretch where they ran lane-to-lane, neck and neck for the duration of the race with Reed only pulling it right at the end. "I could just feel her next to me the whole time, and knew I wasn't going to pull away," Reed said. "But I just felt myself getting faster right at the end. It was neck-and-neck."
Similar to that race was the boys 100, where Oroville's Cameron Thompson finished second. Thompson entered the final with expectations to win the event, but the slightest of missteps cost him the top spot. He had a split-second edge over Sutter's Darius Ray heading into the final few meters, but Ray charged ahead to take it. Obviously disappointed, Thompson stared at the ground, hands on his hips. "So upsetting. I anticipated the win, and did everything right. I got off the blocks quick, I was running well," he said. "Then I heard the other guy coming from my left. I tried to kick in, but stumbled just a little and he caught me at the last second." Still, Thompson went home with a pair of second-place finishes; he grabbed silver in the 300 intermediate hurdles as well. His results complemented the winning effort of classmate Cheryl Ridge, who took first in the shot put with a heave of 36 feet, 9 1/2 inches.
In the girls 3,200, Chico's Hannah Dillard won by an overwhelming margin, lapping the field on the last quarter-mile en route to a time of 11:11.06. After the first mile, Pleasant Valley's Hannah Soza-Hodgkinson had been keeping pace, but Dillard soon extended her lead to about 45 meters, then cruised to victory. She raised both fists above her head and grinned wide as she crossed, then dropped them quickly, clearly fatigued given she'd taken second in the 1,600 before her victory. "I'm really proud of myself, because I finally get to go to state in the two-mile," she said. "I had to keep pushing myself, because I was kind of tired from the first mile. It was just a really successful day." Chico also had a winner in the girls' long jump in freshman Kasey Barnett's 16-10 mark. In one of the few big upsets of the meet, She surprised most watchers by placing in front of teammate Kayla Naron (fifth), Oroville's Katie Brandt (third) and the pre meet favorite, Gridley's Sarah Nichols (second). Other high finishes for local schools included PV's Hannah Royall taking third in shot put while Viking Anthony Carter took second and teammate Travis Martin third in the triple jump.
