State Meet, Day 1: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

The Bad (Sort Of)

A handful of the state's top athletes managed to advance to the finals despite less-than-ideal performances, but at least they have a chance to improve on Saturday.  Of course, in some of these cases it may just have been a little gamesmanship, or an effort to save some energy for the remainder of the meet, and it's very likely that we'll see many of the athletes listed here rebound to perform well in the finals.

Tierra Robinson-Jones and Hannah Waller both lifted off the gas a little in their 400 trials, resulting in the #2 and #5 seeds advancing 7th and 8th.  Lane preferences vary from runner to runner, and may be less important in the 400 than in the 200, but being stuck on the outside isn't usually optimal; yet that's where the defending champ will start on Saturday night.  Waller used some of that saved energy to advance 4th in the 200, however, so that might have been the plan all along.  Rylee Bowen may also have been deliberately cruising in the 1600, where she ended up 9th with a time of 4:52; watch for her to be right in the thick of things when the final starts. There was a similar outcome for Woodward in the 300 Hurdles, although her 7th-place finish will put her in lane 2, where she can see the competition for the first few hurdles.  Woodard did post the #3 qualifying time in the 100 Hurdles, and teammate Hannah Davis advanced 5th in the 300, setting Vacaville up for big points in those two events. 

Deion Lightfoot-Shelton ran 14.16 in the 110 Hurdles, three tenths off of his CA #2 time from last weekend, but still advanced as the 7th-best qualifier to challenge Anderson for the title. Rae'Vyn Lawler barely made it into the 100 final with an uncharateristic 12.04, and she will need to return to her 11.70 form from the SJS Masters meet to be competitive there.  All the damage in the boys' 100 was done before the meet ever started, as we are missing Isaiah Cunningham and Zachary Shinnick (both injured).  Zaria Francis didn't look quite as sharp as we're used to seeing from her, as she will be seeded 4th in the 100 final and 6th in the 200.  Jade Harrison also had a difficult day, falling short in the 100 and 400 before just barely sneaking into the 200 final.

Allanah Lee struggled a bit in the triple jump, going just 38' 2.75" after hitting 40 feet last week, but it was enough to get her to the finals as the 10th qualifier.  Shane Peterson, tied for CA #2 in the vault before the meet, had to sweat out a final tiebreaker before getting into the final with a 14' 8".  Jake Arnold threw over 10 feet off his season best in the shot put, but he lived to compete another day and has a chance to redeem himself in the final.  Great Oak will need Seth Knowlton to get back into the upper 190's in the discus on Saturday if the Wolfpack wants to have a chance to get past Vista Murrieta in the team scoring.