California State Meet - May 24 & 25
Veterans Stadium - Clovis, CA
California hosts their state meet this weekend at Buchanan High School and it will be all divisions colliding in one meet. Here are the distance runners to watch:
1600 Meters
The 1600 meter races will have prelims on Friday and then a final on Saturday. Sadie Engelhardt of Ventura is the defending state champion at the 1600 and holds the meet record at 4:33.45 set last year. Engelhardt also set the high school national mile record earlier this year at the Mt SAC Invitational in a time of 4:31.72. Braelyn Combe of Santiago (Corona), Chiara Dailey of La Jolla and Annie Ivarsson of Dana Hills are other contenders. Andreas Dybdahl of Santa Barbara is the defending 1600-meter state champion and he will be challenged by a deep field including Benjamin Bouie of Crystal Springs who ran an eye popping 4:06.92 to qualify for state. Anthony Fast Horse of Ventura almost won last year's race and returns. Ibzan Felix of Beckman has a knack for winning this spring.
800 Meters
Like the 1600-meter races, the 800-meter races have prelims on Friday with finals on Saturday. Keaton Robar of Newport Harbor and L'Mio Edwards of Claremont ran to the finish last week at CIF SS Masters and both ran 2:07. Same could be said by the San Diego section runners Tessa Buswell of Poway Makenna Herbst of Carlsbad and Kaitlyn Arciaga of Westview as they all finished at 2:07 last week. The top qualifying times boy's times came from the Southern Section including Ambodai Ligons of Cathedral and Wyland Obando of Long Beach Wilson.
4 X 800
This is the second year of the 4 X 800 relay the race will be contested as a final on Saturday. The top qualifying girl's team is Ventura with Granada, Cathedral Catholic and Campolindo contending. San Clemente boys won the inaugural event last spring and they return to defend their title. There are a number of schools who can unseat San Clemente including Cathedral, Santa Barbara, Great Oak, Jesuit, Davis and Monache.
3200 Meters
The 3200 will be raced as a final on Saturday night. Rylee Blade of Santiago (Corona) won the event last year and hopes to defend the title. Blade will have company as Jaelyn Williams of East Lake, Chiara Dailey of La Jolla, Holly Barker of Trabuco Hills and Gioana Lopizza of La Costa Canyon can contend. Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery of Santa Rosa won the event two years ago as a freshman and is racing too. Evan Noonan of Dana Hills and Jason Parra of Millikan dueled last week CIF SS Masters and will meet again. Joshua Bell of Templeton and Lucas Cohen of Albany are other runners to watch.
Look for the photo gallery of the prelims on Friday and finals on Saturday!
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