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Sports

TRACK AND FIELD: State Finals Conclude Under Gloomy Skies

Hiltz, Myashita both medal for Mariners.

Wet weather peppered the track at the 2011 CIF State Track and Field Championships at Buchanan High in Clovis on Saturday, but the deterrence from Mother Nature didn’t stop the state’s best from vying for a state medal.

Four of the locals that walked away with medals were Nikki Hiltz and Nikki Myashita of Aptos High and Allison Sturges and Samantha Sinclair of Mountain View High.

In one of the most competitive fields at the state finals, the girls 1600 competition seemed to turn into a limbo competition, track and field style.

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The how low can you go race finished with several athletes turning in personal best times, including the 2011 CCS champion in the 800 and 1600,Hiltz.

Hiltz finished in third place in the 1600 with a PR time of 4:43.43

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The Aptos distance star won the CCS event last week with a time of 4:51.94. She bested her top mark in the prelims on Friday and once more in the finale on Saturday night.

Sturges, the runner up to Hiltz in CCS, medaled with a fifth place finish in the 1600. Her state finals time was 4:47.65. Fellow Mountain View junior Sinclair also medaled in the girls shot put.

Sinclair threw a PR of 41-01.50 to finish fifth in the state finale, putting a bow on a stellar first season as a member of the Spartans track and field team.

Myashita, a Mariners junior, also medaled in the girls high jump. She finished in sixth place.

A Clovis local, Anginae Monteverde won the girls pole vault with a mark of 13-06.00. CCS champion Rachel Bolton of Homestead High-Cupertino cleared 11-06.00 for the second straight day and finished in a tie for ninth place.

The Gilroy boys 4x100 relay team came in seventh in the finals with a time of 42.39. Seniors David Guenther, Julius Travis, Romeo Travis and junior Jourdan Soares capped off an amazing two-year run with a top-8 finish in the state finals.

The Mustangs foursome won back-to-back CCS title in the boys 4x100--including a scorching time of 41.77 in last weekend’s CCS Championships on their home turf in Gilroy--slicing time off their personal record little by little along the 24-month run.

With less than ideal conditions greeting the competitors throughout the afternoon and evening in the state finals on Saturday, several athletes finished with times well off the mark from their usual exploits.

Maurice Williams finished his accomplished career at Palo Alto with a seventh place finish in the boys 100. His time of 10.91 edged out the final two runners by .05 seconds.

Williams, also a member of the 2010 CCS and State Champion Paly football team, will attend Fresno State University in the fall.

Similar to the Girls 1600 field, the Girls 3200 race was just as competitive. Times continued to fall on day one, leaving Scotts Valley underclassmen Vanessa Fraser in the middle of the hearty pack of the state’s best.

Fraser finished the state finale in 15th place with a time of 10:37.17. Erin Robinson (Gunn High-Palo Alto) placed 26th with a time of 11:14.88.

Three locals finished in the top 20 of the boys 3200 race, highlighted by a 12th place finish for CCS champion Kevin Bishop of Monta Vista High-Cupertino.

Bishop’s time was 8:59.82, nine seconds off the winning time of 8:50.03. Parker Schuh (Mountain View) placed 17th and Will Geiken (Los Gatos) landed in 19th place in the 30-man field.

Prospect High sophomore Kamara Biawogi finished in eighth place in the boys 300 hurdles finals. The underclassman finished his 2011 season with a time of 49.62.

The Panthers second year star has had quite a season on the track. Biawogi qualified for the state meet in the boys 110 and 300 hurdles during last week’s Central Coast Section championships in Gilroy.

Biawogi finished second at CCS in the 100 hurdles with a time of 14.66 and nabbed another second place honor in the 300 hurdles with a mark of 38.87.

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