BOYS SPRINTS
It's tough to pick out the favorite in the 100m but if I had to narrow it down to two sprinters, I will take Austin Kresley and Ethan Song. Both have run very fast times although wind-aided. We will see what they can do when the conditions are the same for all competitors in the same race. In the 200m and 400m, the two leading sprinters will be Max Glasser of Marin Catholic (Michael Lucid photo above) and Cameron Reynolds of Clayton Valley. We could have two epic finishes by both sprinters in both events.
BOYS MID-DISTANCE/DISTANCE
California HS could sweep the 800m distance races provided that Bobby Poynter can hold his end of the bargain in the boys race. Liam Anderson will be favored to win both 1600m and 3200m races although he will be challenged in the 1600m by a strong contingent from Dublin and John Bennett in the 3200m race.
BOYS HURDLES
The two hurdle races took quite a hit when Clayton Valley senior Aiden Jackman went down with a season-ending hamstring injury. Now, the favorites to win will be Troy Barcenas of Dublin in the highs and Jaelen Craft of Newark Memorial in the intermediates.
BOYS RELAYS
In the 400m relay, Pittsburg will be the team to beat as they have posted the fastest time this season at 41.95. In the 1600m relay, Clayton Valley should be the favorites despite missing one of the top runners in the section. Las Lomas, Maria Carrillo and De La Salle should make things interesting as well.
BOYS JUMPS
In the boys' high jump, the leading jumper is Daylon Hicks of Clayton Valley. He has jumped 6'10" so far this season. In the long jump and triple jump competitions, Malcolm Clemons of St. Mary's Berkeley and Teaun-Tr'e Prince of Pittsburg will battle for two section titles. It's possible they may split but either way, it should be very competitive in both events.
Update: Teaun-Tr'e Prince of Pittsburg won the triple jump with Clemons in 2nd place.
BOYS THROWS
As is sometimes the case, we will have two different favorites for the throws events. Washington senior Nicholas Betchart is the clear favorite in the shot put but Sam Hines of St. Mary's Berkeley will be the leading thrower in the discus.
We will update any events that lose any favorites today. Please feel free to comment below on any favorites that we may have missed in our preview.