Jackson places third in pole vault at CIF prelims
Stallman, Stidham also advance to finals
By Joe Naiman
Ramona High School junior Courtney Jackson cleared 11’3” in the girls pole vault at the CIF preliminaries at Mt. Carmel High School May 18, which placed her third in Division I and overall.
“She was a real solid competitor,” head coach Sherri Edwards said of Jackson. “If she remains in the top three she’s going to state.”
At the May 26 section finals, which will also be held at Mt. Carmel, team points and individual medals will be given for the top finishers in each of the two CIF divisions. The qualifications for the state meet are for Division I and Division II combined.
Achieving one of the top nine times or distances in the preliminaries (top 12 for the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races) qualifies a competitor for the “A” race or flight in the finals while the nine (or 12) next best athletes advance to the finals in the “B” race or flight. Only those in the “A” race are eligible for the state meet, although a “B” time or distance can be used for team points or divisional medals.
Ramona freshman Holly Stallman qualified for the “B” race in both the girls 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash. Her time of 25.75 seconds in the 200-meter dash placed sixth in Division I while breaking her own school record of 25.91 seconds.
Stallman’s time of 12.49 seconds in the 100-meter dash place eighth in Division I.
Ramona senior Tristan Stidham extended his high school career one more week with a time of 4:23.80 in the boys 1,600-meter race, which is a personal record, and placed 11th among Division I runners. He was 0.3 seconds away from qualifying for the “A” race.
Junior Courtney Ford’s best long jump was 16’1”, the 10th-best mark among Division I girls.
Junior Callie Guasti cleared 4’9” in the high jump to place 15th in Division I.
Junior Karah Banegas hurled the shot put 32’8- 1/4” to place 16th among Division I girls.
Through no fault of his own, senior Dustin Hager settled for an 18th-place time of 42.44 seconds in the boys 110-meter hurdles. One of the other hurdlers in the heat race fell into Hager’s lane.
“He had to run around him,” Edwards said.
Daniel vanTol won the Valley League meet in the boys shot put, but the junior is part of the vanTol family that owns TD Dairy and he had to deliver a cow the night before the preliminaries. After working until 4:30 a.m., vanTol threw the shot put 43’9”, which placed 22nd in Division I.
Senior Paul Mehaffie closed out his high school career by throwing the discus 130’8”, which placed 20th among Division I boys.
The girls 4x100 relay team of Ford, freshman Diana Turvey, freshman Hannah Farhat, and Stallman placed 16th with a time of 50.99 seconds. The boys 4x100 relay squad of senior Colton Wood, sophomore Brandon Gansch, sophomore Christian Dominguez, and junior Garrett Dart had an 18th-place time of 45.15 seconds.
The track and field athletes with the top three times or distances in each event at the CIF San Diego Section finals this Saturday will qualify for the May 31 and June 1 state meet in Clovis.