Freshman Heidi Johnson, who also ran the 300-meter hurdles and the 200-meter, advanced to the finals for her long jump at the sectionals on May 17.
(The final results for some events have not yet been released. Check back for updated stats.)
Of the three track and field members and two relay teams who competed against 65 other schools in sectionals on May 17 at Stanislaus State in Turlock, none are moving on to the Thursday finals for running events.
To qualify for the finals, competitors had to place in the top eight in their events.
Freshman Heidi Johnson qualified for the finals in the long jump, with a length of 16 feet, 5 inches.
For field events, finals were immediately after the sectionals event.
However, Johnson said that finals did not go well for her.
“I don’t know if it was heat, fatigue, (an off-day), or a mixture of all three, but I couldn’t muster a good jump,” she said.
Looking back after the last meet of the season, coach Nick Domich said that watching Johnson’s dominant freshman season was fantastic.
“I am so proud of her,” he said. “(But) she still needs to work harder, and try not to do everything all the time.
“There are only 24 hours in a day and some of them should be what is known as downtime.
“Roger Federer and LeBron James sleep 12 hours a day. How many accolades have they received?”
Johnson also competed in the 300-meter hurdle and 200-meter.
“For the 300 hurdles I was very tired, and the heat must’ve gotten to me because as much as I tried, I just couldn’t get myself going,“ she said.
“The 200 immediately after that (was) the same story.”
Johnson, junior Anny Schmidt and sophomores Nina Dym and Annya Dahmani beat their best time by over a minute in the girls’ 4×100 relay.
“Anny didn’t come with us in the van, so we were nervous that she wouldn’t show up in time,“ Dym said.
Schmidt was at the meet for only 20 minutes for the relay and said the time to get to the meet (one hour and 45 minutes) was excessive to compete in only one event, as many members did.
Senior Serajh Esmail, junior Jaelan Trapp and sophomores Steven Wang and Andrew Rossell placed 19th of 22 in the boys’ 4×100 relay with a time of 46.15.
Esmail, who also competed in the 100-meter, placed 20th of 26 with a time of 11.53.
“I had fun running today,” he said.
“There was great competition in all of the sprints – something I was expecting and actually looking forward to.
“(There were) no real problems in my sprints, just a lot of fast kids.”
(Esmail is in red and black. Video used by permission of Nina Dym)
This was the last high-school meet for Esmail, who will attend UC Berkeley next year.
“I don’t regret anything (this year),” he said. “Every year I think I could’ve put more work in here and there, but that’s every year.
“I ran faster than ever, and if I want to run in college next year, I’ll have (to) put in serious work and find a track trainer.”
Esmail qualified for the 200-meter as well, but did not run it.
Sophomore Yasmin Gupta competed in the shotput.
“It just wasn’t my day,” she said.
“It was rough because (there were) a lot of big schools, and I wasn’t prepared for a big meet like that.”
This meet was the last of the season, but, due to a meet scheduling conflict, Johnson will compete in the triple jump on Thursday, May 19, at Stanislaus State in Turlock.
—By Mohini Rye
