RECAP Top Athletes Shine at CIF-North Coast Section MOC

DUBLIN -- It was cold and windy all evening at Dublin High School on Saturday for the finals of the two-day CIF-North Coast Section Meet of Champions. Conditions were hardly ideal for the best track and field athletes in the NCS attempting to qualify for the California Interscholastic Federation championships May 26-27 in presumably slightly warmer Clovis.

But there were plenty of impressive performances.

De La Salle High School's Chukwunonso Udeh won the boys long jump, high jump and 110-meter hurdles and ran a leg on the second place 400 relay team, accounting for 38 of the Spartans 58 points en route to the team title. Campolindo senior Mari Testa won the girls 100, 200 and 100 hurdles, scoring 30 of the

Cougars 55 points as they took the team championship.

Montgomery super-sophomore Hanne Thomsen continued her dominance of the distances, winning the girls 1600 and 3200 and running a leg on the second place 4x400-meter Relay.

The top three finishers in each race qualified for the State Meet, with the exception of two-auto qualifiers per gender for the new 4x800m relay. No athletes outside the top three made the qualifying standards for the State Meet.

Udeh, a senior, tried to conserve his energy all day. He won the high jump at 6-4, but declined to try for a better mark. Then, he went to the long jump and fouled on his first attempt.

"I came from the high jump really tired," Udeh said. "It felt like my body was giving up on me. I was a bit scared because I scratched my first jump. I wasn't sure if I was going to get a mark on the board."

He did, jumping 23-9.25 on his second attempt to win the event. He passed the rest of his jumps to rest of up for the relay and the hurdles.

The relay team of Udeh, Jaden Jefferson, Jonathan Guerrero and Toa Fa'avae finished in 41.67, just behind winner Acalanes (Ethan Torres, Kyle Bielawski, Trevor Rogers and Paul Kuhner) in 41.46. Udeh then won the hurdles in 14.36.

"I came a long ways," he said. "I was running 15-flat two weeks ago. I'm just trying to work it. I think I've probably got the hang of it. I'm just trying to perfect it and get it down. I'm not there yet but I'm very close."

Testa, a senior, completed an incredible triple. Not only had no girl won the 100, 200 and 100 hurdles in one Meet of Champions (dating back to 1974). No one had ever won both the flat 100 and 100 hurdles championships.

Testa started by taking the hurdles in 14.28, more than a second ahead of second place Alessandra Ionescu-Zanetti of Berkeley (15.33). Then, she won the flat 100 in 11.94. Then, she claimed the 200 in 25.02. She said she plans to run all three at the state meet.

"I thought it was a solid race," Testa said after the 100 hurdles. "The wind has been a little all over the place today but I'm trying to use it to my advantage the best that I can. I always take my competition seriously. You never know what can happen especially in a hurdle race.

Warming up, I imagine ... all the competition is people faster than me and it'll help push me to the finish line."

Thomsen said she didn't feel great in her 1600, which she won in 4:51.77. Sonoma Academy junior Athena Ryan rallied to take second in 4:55.91. Thomsen then dominated the 3200, winning by over 13 seconds in 10:30.40.

She's the defending State Meet champion in the latter and said she planned to run both races at State.

"The conditions today weren't great for running that fast," Thomsen said. "I got the win which is what I wanted. Going into next week, I just hope I can recover pretty well because I'm having a big weekend this week."

Cate Peters of Monte Vista  had a good weekend as well. The senior won the 800 in 2:12.77 and anchored both the winning 1600 and 3200 relay teams, which finished in 3:52.76 and 9:25.91, respectively.

The Mustangs were involved in a bit of drama in the 1600 relay preliminaries on Friday. On one of the exchanges, a runner from California HS went to the ground and rolled into the path of a Monte Vista runner, knocking her over. California was disqualified and Monte Vista was added back into the final in Lane 9. The Mustangs had originally finished ninth overall and would not have otherwise qualified for the finals.

Senior Robert Stitts of El Cerrito doubled up in the boys 100 and 200. He won the 100 in a very good 10.35. It would have been a meet record but the wind was 3.2 meters per second, well over the allowable 2.0. He then won the 200 in 21.31.