COTTONWOOD - The Bob Russell Award is handed out every year to the best male and female competitors at the final section meet - the highest honor that any track and field athlete can receive in the north state. For Anthony Williams' his day rivaled the one Mother Nature provided. The Enterprise High School senior competed in four events in the Northern Section Track and Field Championships - and he came away with four picturesque performances, on what turned out to be a beautiful Friday.

Williams swept the hurdles events, winning the 110-meter race in a time of 14.63 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 38.80. His performance in the high jump was so good that even his competitors reached for their cell phones to take a snapshot of Williams clearing the bar again and again. Williams' leap of 6 feet, 10 inches was not only the best mark in the history of section host West Valley's track, but it was 7 inches better than second-place finisher and teammate Jovon Cunningham.

Williams closed the meet with one last encore, by running a leg on the 1,600 relay. Junior Austin Lamkin started the event for top seeded Enterprise. Seniors Brian Tofflemire and Zach Kaylor followed, hoping to stay close enough with the Chico and Durham teams so Williams would be able to do his job as the Hornets' anchor. No problem for Williams. Even with some leg cramping the senior surges to the lead then holds on for the victory, helping Enterprise to the second-best 1,600 relay time in section history at 3:22.81. The Hornets needed every bit of the four runners' effort as Chico, anchored by Dan Parker, finished second with the third-best section time at 3:23.32 and Durham, anchored by Kyle Fales, third in the tenth best section time of 3:23.96. "It was the perfectest day," Williams said, talking as fast as he ran Friday and showing that nothing could keep up with the senior, not even himself.

His performance made it an easy choice for outstanding male athlete of the meet. It was Chico's Kasey Barnett who joined Williams on the awards stand as the outstanding female athlete of the meet after she won the long jump, triple jump and the 100 after anchoring the third-place 400-meter relay team. "This is everything that I could've asked for," Barnett said after taking her place on the winner's podium along with male Bob Russell recipient Williams.

"I've been at this meet four times and every time I've watched the Athlete of the Meet come up and thought if I could do that my senior year that'd be great. I knew I had a shot at it coming in with four events so it feels amazing." Barnett started the day on the field winning the triple jump with a 36 feet, 1 3/4 inch effort and the long jump with a leap of 16-06.75. Moving to the track, she joined Panther teammates Carolyn Kurnizki, Tiffany Chu and Katie Buck to claim third-place in the 400 relay team (51.07) before closing out her day winning a close 100-meter in 12.96 seconds, .

Barnett noted that Pleasant Valley freshman Brooke Whitburn was her toughest competitor on the field, forcing the Panther senior to battle through the final round before securing the victory. "Going into the long jump I knew it would be a little bit more competitive, and Brooke Whitburn came in and gave me a little run for my money when she hit three-quarters of a inch better than my best (on the day) and I had to come get it in the last jump," Barnett explained. "But that's what competing's about and that's what makes it so much fun." Those two weren't the only ones who gave spectators something to watch.

Friday's other track winners, along with those who met a qualifying standard mark in any event (only one), to advance to next week's state meet in Clovis.:

Boys 100: Central Valley's Colton Silveria (10.90) beat Foothill's Marcial Lawson (11.01) to the tape, although Lawson won the 200 in 22.09 after rallying the Foothill 400-relay team to a win in 43.66.

Boys 400: A 1-2 finish for the Durham boys with Daniel Hodge winning in 49.62 and teammate Kyle Fales the runner-up in 50.04. Enterprise's Austin Lamkin was third (50.95).

Boys 800, Yreka's Kevin Jorgensen (1:57.04) a comfortable winner over Red Bluff's Devin Shoop (2:00.80) and Chico Chas Burton (2:01.70).

Boys 1600: Dan Parker of Chico trailed Enterprise's Domenic D'Acquisto through the majority of the 1600m, but pulled ahead on the final lap then held on to the lead down the homestretch to win in 4:16.38. D'Acquisto came in second (4:17.94) with Oroville's Russel Brandt a distant third in 4:30.41. "I wasn't sure what I was going to do at the beginning of the race," Parker said. "My coach talked to me about relentless speed, which means I can kick for a long time, and I didn't know if I had it, but I put it into gear and gave it a try."

Boys 3200: Enterprise's Zach Kaylor gaps Chico's Tom Dowdin after tight opening mile to win in 9:36.82 over his Panther rival(9:45.88).

Boys 110HH & 300IH: Chico's Corrie Emmons was second behind Enterprise's Anthony Williams in the short hurdle race and third in the longer race. PV sophomore Derek Booth was second in the 300 hurdles.



West Valley starred on the girls events.

Eagle senior Taylor Lambert was the part of two winning efforts. She won the 300 hurdles (46.61) and was a part of the winning West Valley 400 relay team than edged Foothill 50.65 to 50.70. She was the runner-up in the 100 hurdles (15.99) to Wheatland's Amanda Menschel at 15.84 and she was on the second place 1600 relay team (4:09.20) that lost to Chico (4:06.93).

A pair of Eagles dueled for the 3,200 title. Ultimately, junior Corissa Storms openned up a small gap late over freshman teammate Hannah Dorman after the two were stride for stride for nearly the whole race. Storms finished in 11:17.11 while Dorman was 11:17.40.

In the girls 200, Wheatland's Miya Wilson (26.22) prevailed over PV's Gabrielle Finley (26.82) and West Valley senior Cassie DeBonis (26.91).

In the 400, Chico's Kody Atkins holds on to win in 58.03 over a very valiant effort by University Prep's Kim Micheletti (58.58).

Chico's Atkins cames back twenty minutes later and has to come from behind to win the 800 in 2:16.51, over Oroville's Sarah Brandt (2:18.02) and Shasta's Lora James (2:22.27). She took the lead with only 80m to go.

Girls 1,600 was easily the meet's most unexpected result with Pleasant Valley's Jessica Canchola (5:16.40) prevailing late over Paradise's Annie Stratton (5:17.60) after race favorites Lassen junior Tiffany Hefflin (3rd - 5:19.50) and sophomore Stephanie Rasmussen of American Christian Academy (4th - 5:23.40) faded from contention early in the final lap.

A pair of Eagles dueled for the 3,200 title. Ultimately, junior Corissa Storms openned up a small gap late over freshman teammate Hannah Dorman after the two were stride for stride for nearly the whole race. Storms finished in 11:17.11 while Dorman was 11:17.40.

Field event summary

Though he already was headed to next week's state meet in Clovis in the long jump, James Williams wasn't satisfied. The Enterprise senior was aiming for an at-large qualifying mark in the triple jump, but kept falling inches short. On his sixth and final attempt, Williams not only got a qualifying mark but also a second section title at the Northern Section Track and Field Championships at West Valley High School on Friday. Needing a 46-foot-2 mark to earn an at-large berth in the triple jump, Williams couldn't make it in his first five tries. Meanwhile, Hornets junior Jovon Cunningham leapt to a meet-record 47-11 1/4 on his first try.

Cunningham, who has the second-best mark in the state in the triple jump this season, eventually passed on his last two tries to compete in the boys high jump competition. Williams went 45-0 1/4 on his first try, faulted on his second and then hit 45-11 1/4 on his third attempt. After a 45-3 3/4 on his fourth, Williams could only clasp his hands on his head when his fifth attempt came up 45-11 1/2. But on his final try, Williams put something extra into his third leap and went 48-4 1/2 to win his second triple jump section title in a row. So as it turned out Cunningham got the at-large berth with his first jump comfortably beyond the at-large mark.

"I knew when I landed, it was out there," Williams said. "I was just hoping I didn't fault and was praying for the official to raise the white flag so it would be a clean jump." It was, allowing Williams to advance to next week's state meet in two events. "I didn't know where I got it from," Williams said. "It was all adrenaline. Leading up to that last jump and even going down the runway, my whole body was shaking. I didn't work hard in this event all year to not make state by three inches."

Earlier in the day, Williams and Cunningham both leapt 22-0 within their first three attempts in the long jump. However, the at-large state qualifying mark of 22-6 was out of reach. Williams did go 22-1 1/4 on his fifth try and got the section win when Cunningham fell achingly short at 21-10 1/4 on his sixth leap. However, Cunningham still advances to the state in the triple jump even if a section title eluded him again. "I'm thrilled for James," Cunningham said. "He had been struggling to reach 46 feet of late. At the same time, it is a little frustrating because we are competing against each other and he won."

Williams' twin brother, Anthony, provided some fireworks of his own in the boys high jump when he cleared 6-10 on his third and final attempt. By that point, Anthony already had the section title in the bag with Cunningham coming in a distant second at 6-3 and well short of the 6-6 qualifying standard. Anthony Williams tried 7-0, but stumbled on his first attempt and couldn't vault over on his final two. But, he still set a stadium record with his 6-10 leap, smashing the 6-9 mark of Teak Wilburn in 2000. The Williams brothers and Cunningham weren't the only ones to have great days in the field events.

Shasta senior Jazmin Porter also went out in style by claiming her third section title in both the shot put and discus. Porter won the shot put with a toss of 39-10 3/4, easily outdistancing runner-up Paige Adkins of West Valley. The junior Adkins was second in 36-4 followed by Yreka's Carrie Scott (34-2 1/2) and Enterprise's Ravien Lawson (32-6 3/4). Porter was even more dominant in the discus throw. While nobody else reached 100 feet at the meet, Porter busted out a 140-0 toss for her sixth individual section crown. "I did a lot more work, more weight lifting this season," Porter said. "I'm really happy with the results. The number 40 has been haunting me for a while. I had to break through it. I went over 40 feet in the shot last week and I got 140 in the discus today."

Another thrower who had a strong day was Anderson senior Europa Mataia. With last year's section discus champion and former Cubs teammate Derek Nichols looking on, Mataia convincingly won the discus with a 170-9 toss. That pleased Mataia who credited another former section champion Jake Goleanor with helping him improve this year. Goleanor is now Anderson's throws coach. "I was kind of nervous because I wanted to make sure I got the at-large mark of 169-1," Mataia said. "Thank God I got to 170. My goal is to hit 180 at state." Central Valley senior Dallas Wilson was second at 155-5 while Shasta junior Cody Ramage was third at 150-1.

Wilson did earn a trip to state when he won the shot put at 50-5. That was enough to overcome West Valley's Kobbie Harper (49-0 1/2) who was second. Shasta's Tyler Ashurst Fagan was third (48-11 1/4), West Valley's Zach Miller was fourth (48-8 3/4) and Trinity junior Cole Whaley was fifth (48-0 1/2).

Boys pole vault: Trinity senior Chris Watanabe cleared 13-0 to win the section title. Teammate Jacob Hymas and Sutter's Justin Gildemeister tied for second place at 12-6. Shasta's Tyler Wilkens was sixth at 9-6.

Girls pole vault: Enterprise junior Kelsey Moynahan cleared 9-9 to give her third section title in the event. Moynahan had three close attempts at 10-6, but couldn't quite get over the bar. West Valley's Misty Jensen and Caitlin Clark were fourth and fifth respectively, both going over 9-0.

Girls high jump: Live Oak senior Daniela Dumitras was the only athlete to clear 5-4, giving her the section win. Loyalton's Kayla Gressel edged two-time defending champion Bre Mackie of Central Valley for second on the basis of fewer misses as both cleared 5-02.

Girls long jump: Chico senior Kasey Barnett won the long jump with a leap of 16-6 3/4 to edge Pleasant Valley freshman Brooke Whitburn (16-5 3/4). Foothill's Kathryn Cummings came in sixth (15-4 1/4).

Girls triple jump: Barnett had an easier time in winning the event with a leap of 36-1 3/4. Sutter's Kelsey Bradley was second (33-7 1/2). Foothill's Abbrieanna Reyna was sixth (30-11 1/2).