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Wiley brings home Silver medal
June 7, 2003
By TOM SHERIDAN NORWALK -- Mindi Wiley exceeded even her wildest expectations this track and field season. The Sonoma Valley freshman began the season hoping to set the school record in the high jump. She ended the season on Saturday at the state meet at Cerritos College just short of a state championship. Wiley finished second in the high jump to national leader Sharon Day of Costa Mesa, by jumping 5-feet, 10-inches to equal her season-best. Day also jumped 5-10 but claimed the state title because she accumulated the fewest misses. Shelby Leland of Ukiah and Phyliss Blanchard of Rancho Cotate also ended their seasons on an upbeat note as they finished third and fifth, respectively, in the 3,200 meters. In the first meet of the season Wiley cleared 5-6 to break that school record. Within a few weeks she went 5-8 to become the all-time leader in the Redwood Empire and eventually boosted the mark to 5-10. Now the three-sport athlete has to rearrange her summer schedule. "I've got basketball summer league," Wiley said. "I'm going to volleyball camp too. And I'm thinking I have to put track in there somewhere." Day, who took the national lead in the high jump early in the season when she jumped 6-2, was the clear-cut favorite in the competition. But things fell into place as Wiley cleared each of her first four heights on the first attempt. After her clearance at 5-8, Wiley looked around and started counting the remaining competitors. "My goal was to get at least fourth," she said. "I was making sure I was still in the running." Over half of the starting field of nine was gone. Wiley, Day, Allie Miller of Los Altos and Desirae Gonder of Stockdale were the only ones remaining when the bar was raised to 5-10. While Wiley clipped the bar on her second attempt at that height, it wasn't enough to knock it to the ground. Day didn't register a miss until the bar got to 6-0, which was enough to secure her second state title in the event. "Going into this I was real nervous because there were three of us with qualifying marks of 5-10," Wiley said. "But I just thought, I'm a freshman. I'm going to try my hardest and go after it." Day, who will compete for Cal Poly SLO next year, said that her best mark as a freshman was 5-9. "She's good," Day said of Wiley. "She's got a lot of potential." Leland and Blanchard ran together near the front for most of the 3,200. But Leland made a move to follow the leaders Claire Rethmeier (San Pasqual) and Rachel Bryan (Laguna Creek) with two laps to go. The Ukiah junior finished third in 10:38.09, her best time of the season. Blanchard wound up fifth at 10:41.83. "I started out really slow this season," Leland said. "My PR (personal record) was 10:37 and I was discouraged. I thought I would start at 10:37 and work my way down, but instead I was running 10:50, 10:48. "Today I went out and said, What the heck. This is my last race of the season, I'm going to run as fast as I can.