The Sacramento Meet of Champions will host their 40th invitational Saturday at the American River College in a showcase of primarily, but not exclusively, Sac-Joaquin talent sure to delight track fans in the area.
The meet would have celebrated its 40th year in 2021, but did not return from the pandemic until last year in 2022.
Founded by former Sacramento State coach Jerry Coleman and Cordova High School coach Steve Kessler, the meet began in 1982 with a desire to create a Sac-Joaquin section preview prior to the post-season. As the meet grew it began to spill over into including other nearby sectional talent from both Northern and North Coast Section.
"It's a special meet for our area and always produces great performances from the kids," said Bella Vista coach Dave Unterholzner, who is in his second year as meet director after many years on the meet staff.
This year's event will play host to nearly 150 schools who were accepted into the meet, which requires applications for schools to participate. Open division events begin at 11 a.m. with invitational girls pole vault at 4 p.m., other invitational field events at 5 p.m., and invitational track events at 5:30 p.m.
MileSplit will live stream track events throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m. Live results will be available from Red Cap Timing.
"My goal is to continue the tradition of this meet," Unterholzner said. "I like the challenge of hosting a meet of this size, and I look forward to it each year."
For the athletes, the meet is a thrilling experience and two of the hurdle athletes in the field will line up to compete against each other in an exciting matchup that Unterholzner said he hopes will become a hallmark of the invitational.
"I'm excited that I'm going to have good competition to push me around the track," said Y'Vette Harris, a senior at Lincoln-Stockton (SJ), and CA's top combination hurdler.
Harris, a Central Florida recruit who was a double medal winner at the CIF-State Championships last May, is the defending champion of the girls 100m hurdle event at this meet last year, and has already dropped her time significantly this season with a recent third place finish at the Arcadia Invitational with a time of 13.83.
Her Arcadia time currently ranks her No. 1 in the state, and she said she is eager to return to Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis again this May after placing second in the 100m hurdles and fifth in the 300m hurdles on the Buchanan High track at the State Finals.
"I always know that at a meet like this (Sac MOC) or Stanford or Arcadia, I need to be on my A-Game," said Harris.
Alongside her will be fellow hurdler Giselle Kirchner, a junior from Rocklin (SJ), who currently ranks as No. 3 in the State in the same event. Kirchner also medaled with Harris in the 100m hurdles event at State last year, and has already run a 14.14 this year at the Stanford Invitational.
"It's amazing to have Gigi right there -- my sophomore and sort of freshman season I didn't really have anyone in our area to race," said Harris. "Having her right there is just amazing. Even though we're friends when it comes time to race we'll push each other no matter what."
Kirchner agrees.
"I definitely love racing against her (Harris)," said Kirchner. "We always talk about how we push each other because she's one of the top hurdlers in the state."
Kirchner also likes the buzz of Sacramento MOC.
"Most of all it's nice to run against a lot of higher level athletes at a higher level of competition since I mostly just have league competition - and it makes the atmosphere super competitive," said Kirchner. "It's cool how there's an invitational section at night. Night meets always have more atmosphere, a lot more energy, and more cheering that happens."
Who is your favorite hurdler?
Giselle Kirchner:
"Megan Tapper - Olympic Jamaican hurdler - she got a bronze medal in the 2021 Olympics. The reason why I look up to her is because she's 5-1 which is rare for a hurdler because so many of them are tall - but I'm 5-2 so I haven't always felt like the ideal hurdler so seeing someone else who can do that really inspired me that I can do it."
Y'Vette Harris
"Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone - she's just my idol and she always has been from day one of hurdles. She shows that no matter what you can only be the best version of yourself through perseverance and just believing. My goal isn't to be like her, but to be myself - but 10x better."
Unterholzner looks forward to seeing the Harris-Kirchner matchup and hopes to add more like them to the meet each year.
"With the rise of the internet, it's been great seeing kids learning each other's statistics ahead of time," said Unterholzner. "We used to show up and not know who we were competing against until we opened the meet program. Now they all know who each other are and it adds some excitement."
Harris and Kirchner certainly know each other, going head-to-head at least eight times last year and already five times this year heading into Saturday.
Two other SJS hurdle stars, Christian Brothers (SJ) senior Keilee Hall, and St. Mary's (SJ) senior Kori Fields, were both State Meet qualifiers in '22 (Hall placed 6th in the 300mH finals). Hall ranks seventh in CA in the 100mH and eighth in the 300mH. She and Fields are in a super-deep 100m hurdles field set for Saturday, and Hall is also scheduled in the 300mH.
The Harris-Kirchner history has almost always been in that order with the exception of the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters last May where Kirchner got the win in the 100mH, running 14.03 (1.0) -- still her PR in that event -- followed by Fields and Harris. The response? Harris went out and ran 42.61 to win the 300mH race in what remains her PR for that event.
For Kirchner and Harris, a fascination with all things hurdles continues to hold their attention.
"I thought hurdles might be interesting - not everybody does hurdles - it's definitely more of a specific event," said Kirchner. "I kind of took it on as a challenge because so many were afraid of hurdles, but I saw other people do it and I was like, 'Oh that looks cool.' "
Harris, who began club track and field competition when she was five years old, started doing hurdles in the seventh grade.
"What attracted me to hurdles was my older sisters used to do them - I used to do the mile and the 3200," said Harris. "So I thought 'let me try it.' Even though I've never had the best start and run like a distance runner, I started to get quicker and faster, gradually started to PR and now I'm gradually PRing even more."
Their favorite hurdle event?
For Kirchner - it's the 100H.
"I lean more toward the 100m hurdles -- and race-wise I'm better at the 100m hurdles," said Kirchner. "It's the adrenaline. I love a race where you just have to run super fast and give 110 percent."
For Harris -- it's the 300H.
"The 300 hurdles are actually my favorite to run," said Harris. "Not too many people do them and I'm like, yeah they're hard but it's a really exciting race and it's something I look forward to in a track meet I would say."
That doesn't mean the 100 hurdles aren't on Harris' radar.
"For the (100m hurdles), I'm really working on my technique and getting faster over the hurdles and I'm hoping for a 13.5 at some point," said Harris.
Both Harris and Kirchner look to return to the State Championships in May, and are both eyeing post-season competition as well.
"I would really like to go to Nike Outdoors again," said Kirchner. "I'm also interested in the Junior Olympics."
Harris is eyeing U-20s, which she competed in last year and hopes to make the team again this year.
In the meantime, their matchup Saturday at Sacramento Meet of Champions will be one to watch.
Melody Karpinski is a Bay Area-based coach and a regular contributor to MileSplit
Photos by James Leash and Dan Tyree