With pollen in the air, the women’s track team had to deal with its allergies flaring, along with a shortage of water.
“Water containers everywhere were empty,” sophomore Caitlin Barrow said.
Ten women qualified in 13 different events in the dry heat of the Southern California Preliminaries last Saturday at Citrus.
“The heat was horrible and Saturday is going to be worse,” Stephanie Robbins said.
Those who qualified will be at the Southern California Championships in Bakersfield this Saturday. The top four in each event will advance on to the state championships.
The heat may have been horrible, but Robbins was sizzling as she threw a personal best in the shot put. Her shot put distanced 42-3 and a discus throw traveled 121-7, qualifying her with a respective second-and 11th-place finish.
“I didn’t think about anything, I just went in and threw it,” Robbins said.
Specelle Williams, Shammeer Dawson and Barrow all pulled triple duty. Williams ran a personal best in the 100-meter hurdles, a 15.35 effort, and in the 400-meter hurdles, a 67.76 effort. She also helped qualify the 400-meter relay team.
“My favorite event is the four hundred meter hurdle, but I’m better at the one hundred meter hurdle,” Williams said. “The ones you hate the most are usually the ones you’re best at.”
Dawson put up a fourth place finish in the 100-meter, running a personal best of 12.07. Dawson was also a part of the 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay team’s success. The teams cruised to a third-place finish, qualifying them all for the finals.
Barrow, who’s nursing a sore right ankle, qualified in the long jump coming in fourth place with a jump of 16-11. In the high jump, she qualified with a jump of 5-feet which gave her first place.
“Five feet looks like four-feet ten-inches,” Barrow said. “I’m used to it, it’s no big deal now. I’m hoping to make five feet, four inches in the finals.”
Krystal Johnson and Lyndsey Brown rounded out the 1,600-meter-relay team that finished third at the Preliminaries. These four women have kept the team in the top five in the state all year.
“We were first with a fifty meter lead in our heat, so we knew that we had already qualified for the finals,” Lyndsey Brown said.
Brown also qualified in the 800-meter with relative ease, running 2:22.16, down from her personal best of 2:19.04.
“I’m hoping to run under two minutes, nineteen seconds this meet,” Brown said. “I have no other choice than to go all out. I don’t care if I need CPR at the finish line, I’m gonna do it.”
Johnson, along with Star Thurman, round out the 400-meter relay team. Thurman and Darina Daniels from Crenshaw qualified in the triple jump. Daniels jump of 36-9 was her personal best.
“I’m hitting the board and not fouling,” Daniels said. “I’m going farther and farther each time.”
The 1,500-meter saw Heather Rosas with a time of 4:56.00 and Dinora Moran with a time of 5:05.83, both qualify for the finals.
Becky Cherry, Dennise Warnecke and Rosas will all compete in the 5,000-meter Saturday.
Assistant coach Sean Sheil said he believes the women are poised for a big year.
As the sun’s rays showered down upon the women’s track team as it practiced Monday afternoon, Sheil said that the women can’t focus on the heat, only the compeition.
“You can’t think it’s too hot,” Sheil said. “You have to stay positive.”
