An entire season came down to two days of competition against some of the best athletes in California. The women’s track and field team raced around the track, hurled heavy 16-pound balls of metal and after a season of competing, working out, and traveling with one another from city to city, they prepared to say good bye.
In their final event of the season, the team traveled to Bakersfield, where nervousness and adrenaline summed up the 2004 state championships.
With only a handful of athletes still competing, the women’s track and field team mustered out a 14th-place finish in the state, and then set its sights on next year.
Coach Dean Lofgren said he was shocked by some of the other teams’ performances.
Stephanie Robbins (South Torrance) got the day started with the shot put. Her throw of 43-7 was a personal best and she finished in third place for the day.
“I’m glad I was nervous; I had so much adrenaline building up,” Robbins said. “I was ready.”
Robbins was able to improve her throwing over 10 feet this season. Lifting weights and having teammates there to support her have played a big role in her success, she said.
The 1,600-meter relay team of Krystal Johnson (Rancho Verde), Shammeer Dawson (Perris), Lindsey Brown (San Pedro) and Caitlin Barrow (Mira Costa) finished in third place.
This was the first 1,600-meter relay team coached by Kevin Hughley that was able to run the track under four minutes.
The team has been one of the most consistent all year for women’s track.
Placing high in just about every tournament they’ve competed in this year, the women had high hopes for the 1,600-meter relay team going into the state championships and finishing first.
Their time of 3:54.22 was 0.38 seconds away from their personal best.
Dawson was the only women’s athlete to compete in multiple events. Before she competed in the 1,600-meter relays, she finished sixth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 12.6.
Dawson’s personal best of 12.3 puts her 10th all-time in the 100-meters.
“There was a lot of pressure at state,” Dawson said. “I psyched myself out of the race.”
Star Thurman (Paramount) finished fifth in the triple jump with a jump of 36-6. The jump was a personal best for her and was 3 feet behind the leader, who jumped a 39-10 1/2.
Specelle Williams (North Torrance) ran a personal best, 1:06.37 in the 400-meter hurdles.
The women’s team will have a large group returning next year. With the exceptions of Becky Cherry, who will be transferring to UC San Diego; Heather Rosas, who’s transferring to Loyola; Caitlin Barrow who will decide between CSU L.A. or CSU Dominguez Hills and Krystal Johnson and Dennise Warnecke, who are both sill undecided, the track team will stay intact.
Lofgren is optimistic about the team chance’s next year. With a nice core group of freshman coming in along with the some returning sophomore leadership, the team is optimistic about its chances of improving.
