Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California's North Bay and Redwood Empire

Low-tech edition (About)
By Eric Branch
The Press Democrat

BERKELEY — After Petaluma’s Isabel Andrade finished the 1,600 meters
Saturday at the North Coast Section Meet of Champions, she was spent and
satisfied.
Moments later, however, she was seriously slack-jawed: Andrade had
qualified for the CIF State Track and Field Championships.
In an unexpected performance, Andrade, a junior, dropped more
than eight seconds off her personal-best time and qualified for next week’s
state meet in Clovis with a fifth-place time of 4 minutes, 56.29 seconds.
The top four in each event advance to state, but Andrade punched her ticket
by going under the CIF qualifying standard of 4:57.09.
After Andrade crossed the finish line, she was proud of her
personal-best time. But she also knew she finished fifth. It wasn’t until
she heard Petaluma coach Jim Lynch scream “You did it!” across Cal’s
Edwards Stadium that she understood what she had accomplished.
“I didn’t expect to do that good,” Andrade said. “It was really shocking to
me. I just ran with my heart. I really had no plan — I just wanted to run
with everything I had.”
Andrade’s effort may have been the most surprising, but she was hardly
alone Saturday as eight other Empire athletes qualified for the state meet.
Among that group were some usual suspects. Casa Grande junior Jacque
Taylor, a runner-up in the 1,600 meters at state last year, won the 1,600
and also finished third in the 3,200. Santa Rosa senior Troy Baker won the
shot put with a personal-best throw of 54-2 to reach state for the second
straight year and Petaluma senior Sterling Lockert, another state-meet
veteran, placed second in the 3,200.
The group also featured five first-time state qualifiers in Healdsburg
senior Dante Fountain (100 and 200 meters), Santa Rosa junior Reesey Byers
(3,200), Healdsburg senior Eric Arneson (300 hurdles), Fort Bragg senior
Oleg Ryabokorovka (long jump) and Santa Rosa senior Rory McLeod (1,600).
For Fountain, the waiting might have been the hardest part.
Perhaps an hour after apparently missing a trip to state with a
fifth-place finish in the 100 meters, Fountain finished fourth in the 200
in 22.40 seconds, .01 of a second ahead of fifth-place Chase Wheeler of De
La Salle. After he crossed the finish line, Fountain, who finished fifth in
the 200 at the MOC last year, had to endure an agonizing 45-second wait
before the results were posted on a small electronic screboard near the
finish line.
“It felt like my stomach was on the ground,” Fountain said. “I would
have been devastated if I didn’t make it.”
As a bonus, Fountain later learned that he also reached state in the
100 meters, due to a scratch in the event.
Taylor, a three-time state qualifier and one of the premier distance runner
in Northern California, didn’t need a scoreboard to tell her what she
accomplished in the 1,600. In second place with about 200 meters left,
Taylor unleashed a furious finishing kick to win in 4:50.56, more than
three seconds ahead of second-place Diana George of Livermore.
In an effort to improve her finishing kick in the 1,600, Taylor has
incorporated a brutal element to her training regimen this season. Once a
week during practice, she runs the 400 meters. Sixteen times.
“No, I don’t like it,” Taylor said. “But I think it’s paid off.”
In the 3,200, Lockert and Byers ran in the shadow of Novato junior Erik
Olson, who broke a 30-year-old MOC record by winning in 8:50.06, the top
time in the state this season.
In an effort to hang with Olson, Lockert, who has signed with Loyola
Marymount, made a little history of his own. His runner-up time of 9:09.48
lopped more than six seconds off his personal best and moved him from
seventh to second in Empire history.
“I know I’m going to get my best times when I step on the line with
(Olson),” Lockert said. “He’s a great kid and just a phenomenal runner.”
Similarly, Olson seemed to bring out the best in Byers, who placed fourth
in 9:14.15, lowering his personal best by more than seven seconds.
Byers has shaved nearly 40 seconds off his time in the 3,200 since his
sophomore season. And he credits much of his progress to McLeod, his
regular training partner.
“I’ve gotten more serious about my training and I’ve learned to trust it,”
Byers said. “And having Rory to always push me has been great. I wouldn’t
be here without him.”
For his part, McLeod, who will run at Arizona next year, reached state with
a second-place finish in the 1,600 to realize a long-awaited dream.
Last year, McLeod, battling an illness, had to use a medical hardship to
qualify for the MOC, where he finished 11th. He began the track season with
a nagging Achilles’ injury and didn’t begin seriously training until
mid-March.
Finally healthy, McLeod, seeded second in the 1,600, said he felt confident
prior to his race Saturday.
“I think the power of the mind is a lot more important than the
power of the legs,” McLeod said. “I think we all can run pretty well at
this level.”
Ryabokorovka, who finished third in the long jump with a personal-best
leap of 22-6½, moved from the Ukraine to Fort Bragg when he was in the
seventh grade. He moved after his mom, who is divorced, met her future
second husband, an American who was traveling to the Ukraine on business.
Ryabokorovka, 18, took night classes to learn English and he now speaks
fluently with barely a trace of an accent. He is applying for U.S.
citizenship and plans to compete at Santa Rosa Junior College in the fall.
He stumbled onto track as a freshman by accident.
“My friends said they were going to a meeting during lunch to be on the
track team,” Ryabokorovka said. “I only went because I didn’t want to eat
lunch by myself.”
Arneson, the Empire’s leader in the 300 hurdles, entered the weekend with a
personal-best time of 39.74 and was seeded eighth in the event.
He lowered that time in the trials and, 24 hours later, he did it again in
the finals, finishing third in 39.24 seconds.
Could he keep dropping his time next week? On Saturday, Arneson said he was
just happy to be going to what is considered the most prestigious state
meet in the country.
“I can honestly say that I don’t care how I do there,” he said. “I’m
just so happy to make it.”
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