By TREVOR HORN
CLOVIS -- Meagan Lowe is no stranger to hearing her name called down the final stretch at track and field and cross country meets.
But what the Clovis Buchanan junior experienced on Saturday at the West Coast Relays in Clovis on her home campus was something special.
Lowe beat out teammate Corie Smith in the girls 1,600-meter invitational heat, a flip from the CIF State Cross Country Championships in November just miles away at Woodward Park when Smith won the Division I title just ahead of Lowe. The crowning achievement Saturday was that Lowe's time of 4:49.92, now ranked No. 5 in California, set a Buchanan school record.
"It was huge," Lowe said. "Last year I had an off season and I only ran 4:59. So coming into this and being able to run 4:49 is just amazing. I knew I needed to push that last race. I kept hearing (from the PA announcer), 'It's a 4:45 pace, it's 4:50 pace.' I wanted to get our school-record."
There was plenty of other high-caliber action at Buchanan.
Bakersfield Highland senior
Moises Medrano, who is headed to Cal and finished third at state in the 800 last season, took home gold in the boys 1,600 and 800.
Medrano and
Joseph Domingues from Santa Maria-St. Joseph were in a sprint in the final straightaway in the 1,600 before Medrano took an outside advantage and edged Domingues for the title.
Medrano's time of 4:14.57 is a personal-best as Domingues finished in 4:15.87.
Fowler junior
Jocelynn Budwig is the top overall girls thrower in the state and continued to shine.
The state-leader in the shot put won an invitational title for the second consecutive week with a throw of 44-10 ΒΌ after winning the event at Arcadia a week prior.
That title came after Budwig's throw of 158-7 in the discus edged out freshman sensation
Faith Bender from Bakersfield-Liberty (157-3).
Clovis High senior Jake Woods has already cemented himself as one of the best boys sprint hurdlers in the state and added his name into the 300 hurdles with a winning time of 38.27 seconds. Bakersfield Stockdale senior
Aaliyah Wilson backed up her fourth place finish at Arcadia with a title on Saturday in Clovis.
After running a personal-best 11.69 at Arcadia, Wilson ran a wind-legal 11.71 at West Coast.
As Robinson posted a state top-10 time of 55.52 seconds in the girls 400, she also won the girls 200 (24.89) and was part of the 400 relay team for Central that posted a time of 47.37, besting a school-record the foursome set a week ago.