Sacramento Meet of Champions Preview by Tom Lingel

This Saturday at American River College the premier High School Track and Field Athletes from throughout Northern California and Northern Nevada will gather for the 37^th Annual Sacramento Meet of Champions.to be held at American River College. Two races standout amongst all in a meet that must be considered one of the top High School Track and Field Meets in the Country. Historically only 9 Boys have ever broken 4 minutes for a full mile run and only 2 have done it in High School only competitons. 2 weeks ago at the Mount San Antonio Relays in Southern California Cooper Teare from St Joseph’s High School in Alamed ajust missed the 4 minute achievement with a time of 4:00.16 , Teare who won the 3200 at last springs California State Meet will be pushed by Luis Grijalva from Armijo HS in Fairfield who ran a 3:47 1500(the equivalent of a 4:05 mile)while competing as an unattached athlete against Collegiate runners in the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford. This past fall Griljalva won the State Divison 1 Championship in Cross Country while Teare took the Division 5 crown , both races were at 5,000 meters and Griljava’s time was slightly faster.

 

The other event that standouts is the Girls 100 Hurdles in which Jurnee Woodward from Vacaville and Kaylah Robinson from El Cerrito face off , these 2 young woman stand tied for 6^th in the country both with clockings of 13.52 -last spring Robinson finished 2^nd at State and Robinson was 3^rd.

 

Local athletes wont be left out as well-among the Girls Emily Costello from Bella Vista will be among a field that includes 6 of the top 13 in the State in the 400, Caitlan McIntosh from Del Oro will headline the field in the 800 (she finished 2^nd at State last spring),Olivia O’Keefe from Davis High coming off an injury (3^rd at State), will face off against the Denner sisters from Oak Ridge who currently rank 4^th and 5^th respectively in the State. In the 300 Hurdles Sadye Peschke from Bella Vista and Mackenzie Fletcher from Ponderoa will face off against Woodward who is the defending State Champion in the event. The Triple Jump features Davis’s Alyssa Lengtat, who will face off against 2 athletes who finished in the Top 3 at the State Meet.

 

On the Boys side in the 400 Jordan Tillis (Franklin,Elk Grove) who is #5 in the State will face off against Myles Ellis of Antelope who ranks 8^th but was 4^th at State Last June. The 800 is led by Franklin of Elk Grove’s Xavier Weaver, the 3200 is heade by Davis Highs Michael Vernau, Jake Grimsman from Vista Lago headlines the High Jump field and Lance Huber of Del Oro ,one of only 6 young men in California to clear 16 feet this Spring in the Pole Vault, will face off against another 16 footer in College Park of Pleasant Hills Noah Hurley. Finally Phillip Brown of Foothill leads the Long Jump field-he currently ranks #5 in the State

 

The Day portion of the meet,,begins at 11AM with the Invitational portion starting at 4 with the Girls Pole Vault with the running events beginning at 5:30.