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Casa's Taylor comes up short in bid for state title
Taylor boxed in, finishes fourth in 1,600-meters; Lockert, Stone set Empire records

By ERIC BRANCH
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Saturday, June 6, 2009

CLOVIS — Jacque Taylor’s bid to make history ended, in effect, a few seconds after it started.

Moments after the opening gun of the 1,600 meters at the CIF Track and Field Championships on Saturday night, the Casa
Grande junior couldn’t make her planned move to the front of the pack. Heck, sandwiched between a small army of runners,
she could barely move her elbows.

Taylor, whose pre-race strategy focused on taking the first-lap lead and holding on for a wire-to-wire win, instead
finished fourth in 4 minutes, 50.70 seconds, falling short in her quest to become the first Empire athlete to win a state
title since 2001 and just the fourth in the past 41 years.

“I just got boxed in,” said Taylor, who was seeded second in the event. “There was a lot of elbow tossing and flat tires
and what not. But you had to do what you had to do.”

And top-seeded senior Sammy Silva of Our Lady of Peace in San Diego did exactly what she wanted. Silva, who will run at
Harvard next fall, led from start to finish and won in a personal-best time of 4:47.67, the eighth-fastest in the nation
this year, before a crowd of 9,517 at Buchanan High.

Taylor, 17, the state runner-up in the 1,600 last year, fell 1.07 seconds off her personal-best time. But her
disappointment was tempered by Silva’s brilliant performance and the reality that she never had much of chance due to the
initial logjam.

Once Taylor finally found some breathing room in the first 400 meters, Silva was beginning to lose contact with the field.
Taylor, not known for a dominant finishing kick, knew she was stuck.

“It was really too late,” Taylor said. “I just had to hold on. It would have been suicide if I tried to sprint up with her
after being boxed in. That would have taken all my energy away.”

Said Silva, “I really thought it might come down to me and Jacque Taylor. I thought it might be us going head-to-head. But
I was able to run the race I wanted to run.”

In defeat, Taylor, who later finished 11th in the 3,200 meters, joined some exclusive company. A fourth-place finisher in
the 3,200 meters as a freshman, she joined distance-running legends in Santa Rosa’s Julia Stamps and Montomery’s Sara Bei
as the only girls in Empire history to post three top-four finishes at the state meet.

With that in mind, she left with a nice consolation prize, particularly considering she’ll have one more chance at a state
crown next year. Besides that knowledge, however, Taylor said she would also leave Clovis with an important lesson.

“I needed to go out fast and don’t always have the fastest start,” Taylor said. “I have to learn to get more aggressive.”

While Taylor’s quest was the Empire’s headline story, two other athletes — Petaluma distance runner Sterling Lokcert and
Ursuline pole vaulter Michelle Stone — broke Empire records Saturday.

Stone, a junior, finished seventh in the pole vault with a mark of 11-10. Stone broke the Empire record of 11-8 she shared
with Santa Rosa’s Emely Flores, who established the mark in 2004. Stone entered the state meet with a personal-best of
11-4, but she tied Flores’ mark in the preliminaries Friday and continued her progress 24 hours later. Her seventh-place
state finish was the best by a girls’ pole vaulter in Empire history and the best by a local vaulter since 1992.

Stone, who has improved by 13 inches in the past month, cleared 11-10 on her third and final attempt. And once she landed,
she knew she didn’t have much time to celebrate.

After all, it was the state meet. The bar was being moved to 12-4.

“I was just kind of like ‘Yes,’ once I did it,” Stone said. “But that was really all. I knew we were going up six inches
so I had to immediately start focusing.”

Lockert, a senior, shattered the 35-year-old Empire record in the 3,200 meters en route to a 10th-place finish. Lockert
finished in 9:01.32, topping his personal best by more than eight seconds and topping the mark of 9:06.95 set by Petaluma’s
Jon Sisler in 1974.

Lockert, who has signed with Loyola Marymount, has lowered his time by 14 seconds in the past week and by 22 seconds since
the start of the track season.

“I started off calm and relaxed and by the second mile I was able to really start running,” Lockert said. “I was able to
start picking guys off. A sub-nine (minute 3200) would have been nice, but I’m not complaining. I ran exactly how I wanted
to run, to the letter.”

The 3,200-meter record had stood for more than three decades. But Lockert’s new mark may not stand beyond next year.

In the same event, Santa Rosa junior Reesey Byers also esclipsed Sisler’s mark. Byers finished 17th in 9:06.93, moving
from sixth to second in Empire history behind Lockert.

“I felt great,” Byers said. “The weather was perfect for running and everything worked out.”

Windsor senior Mike Tracy, the first Empire boy to reach the state finals in the high jump since 1996, finished 10th in the
event. Tracy, who has signed with Cal, cleared the opening height of 6-5, but missed on his three attempts at 6-7.

Tracy’s rise to prominence has been a bit unlikely. Since Windsor doesn’t have a coach well-versed in the high jump, Tracy
has relied on a hodge-podge of advice from various local coaches throughout his career.

While other jumpers looked in the stands for advice from their coaches after jumps, Tracy didn’t have that option.

“I’ve talked to coaches from Healdsburg, Piner, Rancho Cotate, Analy, you name it, to get tips at different meets,” Tracy
said. “Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring them all with me.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eric Branch at 521-5268 or eric.branch@pressdemocrat.com.

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