Girls 1600
Meet Record - Gillian Wagner - Redwood - 2017 - 4:55.35
In the history of the Dublin Distance Fiesta, one girl has dipped under the 5-minute mark and considering the meet record above, I am sure you can all figure out who was that athlete. I have mentioned this before and the primary reason for the solid but not outstanding times in this event is due to the hotly contested 3200m race later in the meet. If you look at the entry lists for the entire meet, I can list off a number of athletes who would be able to roll under 5 minutes.
All that aside, we will still have an outstanding race and there are definitely a couple of runners here that could dip under the 5 minute mark. Miramonte senior Cassidy Haskell had a best of 4:56.81 last season and has a lifetime best time of 4:52.29. She is currently undefeated this season and will be looking to post a fast time here. Monte Vista junior Kelli Wilson just ran her fastest 1600m with a time of 5:05.42. Naomi Donovan of Los Altos and Luci Lambert will be the fastest runners out of the Central Coast Section. From the Sac-Joaquin Section, McClatchy sophomore Julia Heckey and St. Francis, Sacramento freshman Cate Joaquin are the top runners representing that section. From the Oakland Section, junior Eleanor Wikstrom (above in Pat Rhames photo) should not be overlooked and may be the strongest runner in this field. She has already posted a 5:06.99 season best and finished in 2nd place the California Winter Championship in the 3000m with an outstanding time of 10:11.96. Our own Jeff Parenti posted an outstanding feature on Wikstrom which you can find at this LINK.
Boys 1600
Meet Record - Erik Olson - Novato - 2009 - 4:17.28
Northern California athletes typically have to travel south to compete at the most competitive invitationals like Arcadia and Mt. SAC. Teams from the south, not at the same rate, travel north to face some different competition and get away from the Southern Section grinder schedule. An example would be like like when the La Costa Canyon and Great Oak teams travel to the Stanford Invitational to run in the seeded Cross Country races. This meet has garnered a lot of attention and Northern California runners can more than hold their own against some of the best runners in the state. See last year's California state meet as an example as 6 NorCal athlete swept the distance races.
This year, the favorite in this race will be a runner traveling from the south, Hart's senior runner Jeremiah Rasmussen. He comes in with the fastest personal record at 4:16.65. He has also run impressively so far this season with personal records in the 800 (1:58.45) and the 3200 (9:16.65). His main competition should come from several Central Coast Section runners including Christopher Plasencia of Marina (in white above courtesy of the Monterey Herald), Kevin Andrews of Los Altos and Chris Anderson of San Lorenzo Valley. Windsor's Lucas Chung will also be in the mix and will definitely keep the winner of this race honest.