Many athletes in Jovan Beason’s situation on Saturday would have crumbled under the added pressure he was under from rushing to the meet after his grandfather’s funeral services earlier that day.
As a freshmen who qualified for the finals, Beason placed in ninth with a throw of 45 feet, 1.5 inches.
Trying to compete despite the circumstances, Beason said the funeral wasn’t to blame for his performance.
“I know I can do a lot better,” Beason said. “I am not blaming it for my mark, but it did affect me.”
On Saturday at the Southern California Regional Preliminaries at Saddleback College, many Warriors qualified for this Saturday’s Southern California Championships.
Even though many of the young athletes were having a day full of nerves at their first regional prelims.
A solid thrower in three events all season, freshman Merry Tulikihihifo, finished the day with scratches on all of her throws except for one in the discus.
From her solid performances all season long, the coaching staff said they expected Tulikihihifo to qualify for the next round in the finals in the hammer, shot put and discus.
“I don’t really know what was wrong, I just could not get my form right,” Tulikihihifo said. “I tried adjusting in the ring, but they all scratched. I think I might have gotten too anxious to throw.”
Darryl Guerin, throwing coach, said he considered Tulikihihifo throws and not qualifying as the upset of the day.
“She is way better than that,” Guerin said. “She could have easily qualified for the shot at least, the marks in that event were low.”
Another upset for the throwers came when freshman Jason Harrell failed to qualify in the shot put. Harrel failed to make the cut, missing it by two inches.
“That really hurts,” Guerin said. “If there is a scratch, he’ll get in.”
Harrell did qualify for the discus with a throw of 146 feet, nine inches, finishing in fourth place.
“It was a good throw, not a great one because I did not PR (personal record),” Harrell said. “I plan on a PR at next weekend’s meet so that I can make it to state.”
As a true freshman Harrell is “very excited” for getting the chance to go to state, where his personal record would be of around 150 feet.
“This week everything is on the table, perform or go home,” Guerin said. “This will be the most intense meet, everyone is trying to make it to state.”
The stakes are very high for all the athletes, especially those who are being closely watched by scouts like red-shirt freshman Benjamin Woodruff.
Woodruff qualified in the javelin for the southern finals with a throw of 161 feet, 4 inches, putting him in seventh place.
Some of the track meets other top qualifiers were freshman distance runners David Cardona and Jose ‘Tito’ Lezama.
Cardona had the day’s top preliminary time of 3:55.28 in the 1500-meter run and will join Lezama in the 1500 and 5000-meter run finals.
On the women’s side, track runner Shale’ Garland had the day’s second fastest time of 56.41 seconds in the 400-meter and third in the 200-meter at 24.59 seconds.
She will also be joined in the 4 x 400-meter relay, by teammates KayC Wharton, Rebecca Caracoza and Shavette Williams, who qualified in each of their own events.
“We’re the underdogs,” Williams said of their relay team. “I have faith in our race, we’ll show ’em what’s up.”
“To make it to state, I need to throw my best, and I’m ready for that challenge,” Beason said. “I’m going to make sure I’m not forgotten as competition for next year.”