Head Track and Field Coach George Green provides us with the latest news regarding his squad’s efforts last week. "Islander junior Sarah Player added a third school record to her growing collection at the CIF prelims Saturday. The previous week she had tied the 23-year-old CHS 200-meter dash record of Tricia Rexrode with a time of 25.6, and bettered her own school record in the 300-meter hurdles in 45.84. With Sarah’s speed and technique in place, we figured she had a shot at Jamie Klages’ 100-meter hurdle record of 16.30 set in 2003. The problem is Sarah had only run this race a few times this year and was just getting her timing worked out. The 100-meter hurdles event is sometimes a crap shoot, with even the best hurdlers going down. There are 10 33-inch high hurdles spaced only 28 feet apart. To run a fast time, you must adjust your stride so you’re taking three steps between each hurdle. Sarah got off to a good start and hit the first hurdle with the rest of the field, but she dragged her trail leg and knocked down the first hurdle, causing her to lose ground. Knocking down a hurdle doesn’t disqualify you, but it does slow you down. She drew even with the pack by the fifth hurdle and then started to pull away. Coming off the last hurdle, she must have dug a spike into the track, because the almost went down about 5 meters from the finish. However, she recovered and lunged across the finish line in first place with a time of 16.24, barely breaking Jamie’s record. That was just the start of a long day. She was also entered in the high jump, 300-meter hurdles, and the 200-meter dash. Unfortunately they were all scheduled at about the same time. In the high jump, she was looking great, and went way over the bar at lower heights, but she had to run the 300-meter hurdles when the bar went to 5 feet. She won her heat in around 47 flat (her legs were flat as well), but it was enough to qualify her for the ‘A’ (fast heat) in next week’s CIF Division II finals. When she came back to the high jump, she cleared 5 feet on the second try. At 5-1, it looked like she had again cleared the height on the second try, but she had brushed the bar and it eventually went down. She also missed on her third try. During this time period, the 200-meter dash was being run, so she couldn’t make that race. Next week at the CIF Finals, she’ll scratch the 100 hurdles to concentrate on the high jump and the 300-meter hurdles. Our only other possibility for the State Meet was Danielle Eckert, whose 11-foot clearance in the pole vault this year is among the county’s best. However, after winning the Central League meet last week, she sprained her wrist at cheerleading practice, which ended her season.

For the boys, Levi Lozano set a personal record in the shot put with a toss of 42 feet, 11.5 inches."