DUBLIN – De La Salle senior Chukwunonso Udeh was aiming for 40 points. He finished with 38. At any track and field meet, that’s a lot.
At one as competitive as the North Coast Section Meet of Champions, well, that’s an extraordinary feat.
Udeh finished first on Saturday at Dublin High in the long jump, high jump and 110-meter high hurdles and took second on De La Salle’s 4×100 relay team.
DLS won the team championship with 58 points. El Cerrito took second with 30.
Yes, Udeh accounted for more points than any other team.
“Going into it, I knew the job needed to be done,” he said after his hurdles victory, the final event of his day. “Basically, I had to get my mind right. It’s not like every other meet. I have to get into that mindset
“I was locked in coming in here. I know I’ve got a lot of younger teammates. I’ve got to set the standard and show them how to do it so they can eventually do the same.”
In a competition that began in the afternoon sun and ended under a chilly and breezy marine layer, Udeh easily advanced to next weekend’s state championships in all of his events.
He won the long jump in 23 feet, 9 1/4 inches, which would have been a Top 10 mark in the state this season except that it was wind-aided.
He cruised to victory in the high jump at 6-4, three inches below his season-best mark but an inch more than the runner-up.
He won the hurdles in 14.36 seconds, with Pittsburg’s Tezeno La’Rico taking second in 14.74.
And he helped De La Salle finish second to Acalanes in the 4×100, with the winners covering the distance in 41.46 and the Spartans clocking a 41.67.
Both teams are ranked among the state’s Top 10.
Now, Udeh, who last month was named De La Salle’s athlete of the year, will set his sights on the state finals in Clovis. He plans to compete in all of his events.
“I’m coming for it all,” he said.
Big day for Campo star
Campolindo senior Mari Testa had herself quite a meet, too.
The senior finished first in three individual events to lead the Moraga school to the girls championship with 55 points, 14 points more than runner-up Monte Vista.
Testa, whose victories accounted for 30 points, took first in the 100 hurdles in 14.28.
A short time later, she returned to the track and won the 100 in 11.94.
She ended her day by winning the 200 in 25.02.
After the triumph in the hurdles, she said she was happy about her time given the conditions.
“It’s pretty cold out,” Testa said. “I am looking forward to next week.”
The state championships will be held at Buchanan High in Clovis, where temperatures can be near triple digits in late May but are expected to be more pleasant next weekend.
It is expected to be in the mid-80s on Friday and Saturday.
Redemption for Acalanes
The Acalanes boys 4×100 team of Ethan Torres, Kyle Bielawski, Trevor Rogers and Kuhner was all smiles after it edged De La Salle and El Cerrito in a thrilling race.
The winning time of 41.46 fell a little short of the 41.28 that Acalanes ran at the NCS Tri-Valley championships last week. The 41.28 is tied for the third-best in the state this season.
Rogers said all the credit goes to Acalanes coach Joe Escobar, who molded four football players into a relay machine.
“He turned us into some of the fastest groups of people that the NCS has ever seen,” Rogers said.
The victory comes one season after Acalanes dropped the baton at the Tri-Valley meet, a qualifying competition for the Meet of Champions.
“It really hurt us,” Rogers said, noting that Acalanes was third in the state at the time. “But it lit a fire inside of us. Put in the work the whole off-season. It brought us closer together and makes this feel that much better.”
What did it take to prevail Saturday?
“It took belief,” Rogers said. “We had to believe in everything our coach taught us. Believe in each other. Believe that we’re going to get the stick to each other and leave on time.”
Rogers later broke his school’s record in the long jump with a leap of 23-0 1/2, finishing second to De La Salle’s Udeh. The record, he said, was 23-0.
El Cerrito sprinter soars
Robert Stitts’ time in the 100 would have broken the 43-year-old meet record of 10.40 had it not been for a wind reading of 3.2, well above the legal limit of 2.0.
The El Cerrito senior reached the finish line in a sizzling 10.35, with De La Salle freshman Jaden Jefferson (10.71) placing second and Campo senior Josh Myers (10.74) coming in third.
Stitts then won the 200 in a wind-aided 21.31, out-sprinting runner-up Bryce Thomas of Moreau Catholic (21.94) and third-place finisher Paul Kuhner of Campolindo (22.08).
Last year in the 200, Thomas took first and Stitts was second.
Stitts also qualified on Saturday for the state championships in the 4×100, his team placing third in 41.89 despite a rough baton exchange during the race.
Boys 1,600: From seventh to first
St. Mary’s-Berkeley senior Mateo Malko-Allen made quite a leap from his finish in the 1,600 at last year’s Meet of Champions.
In a race that included defending champion Alex Lamoureux of College Park, Malko-Allen finished first on Saturday in 4:11.44. Albany junior Lucas Cohen took second in 4:12.18 and Lamoureux was third in 4:13.91.
Lamoureux ran faster Saturday than the 4:14.94 he clocked to win last season.
But Malko-Allen was much faster.
One year after he ran 4:23.84 at the MOC to place seventh, he stood atop the medal stand this time.
“I think the reason I did so well in the race was I stuck to my race plan,” Malko-Allen said. “Knowing how these other guys race, I knew I had to be strong in the second and third lap and stay in third to fourth and kick with about 200 meters to go. That’s exactly what I did.”
Girls: Monte Vista standout triumphs
On Friday, Monte Vista’s Cate Peters helped the Danville school finish first in a new event on the California Interscholastic Federation program, the 4×800, but not new in the NCS.
Monte Vista’s time of 9:25.91 broke the MOC record of 9:44.02 that Lick-Wilmerding set in 2018.
In addition to Peters, who ran the anchor leg, the team included Sally Binder, Sofia Fernandez and Peyton Dolan.
On Saturday, Peters added 10 more points to Monte Vista’s second-place team finish by taking first in the 800 in 2:12.77. She held off College Park’s Jessica Chisar, who was second in 2:13.23.
“I felt great during this race,” Peters said. “I made the decision before I went out there that I wanted to take the pace. For a couple of weeks, I’ve been runnings 800s, so I’ve been a little bit slower. I wanted to go out and really get that solid first lap in. Cross that 1:02, which I was really happy with because that’s what the state meet is going to look like.
“For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on my kick, getting that down to about 30 to 31 seconds. Today, with the first lap, I felt like I executed that well. Unfortunately, the wind kind of hit me at the end. Slowed me down a little bit. But I was still able to hold on. Comfortably get the win.”
Peters’ season-best time of 2:10.25, which she ran at the Arcadia Invitational in April, ranks ninth in the state.
What’ll it take to succeed next week?
“It’s not about how fast I run at the end of the day,” she said. “Everyone’s going to run fast. Everyone’s going to give a sub-2:10 effort. I know I am physically capable of that. What’s going to give me that place is really the mental side of it. What I am going to be working on this week is my strategy. Being able to and ready to adapt to the different environments that are going to be potential scenarios at state.
“As long as I have a good mental preparedness going into next weekend, I think that I’ll be able to execute. I know I can run a sub-2:10.”
Peters’ personal record is 2:06.89, which she ran last season at the Mt. SAC Relays.
Other champions
Boys
Discus: Eureka’s Jamin Guilbert, 164-04.00
Triple jump: Liberty’s Frankie Cruz, 47-02.75
Pole vault: San Ramon Valley’s Derek Lo, 13-08.00
Shot put: McKinleyville’s Derek Ray, 54-03.00
4×800: Clayton Valley Charter, 7:58.10 (meet record, eclipsing previous mark of 8:02.82 set by Dublin in 2017)
400: Dublin’s Alexander Franco, 48.65
800: Piedmont’s Parker Long, 1:53.80
300 hurdles: Pittsburg’s La’Rico Tezeno, 39.50
3,200: Granada’s Roland Ruckmann-Barnes, 9:02.27
4×400 relay: Dublin, 3:23.60
Girls
High jump: Maria Carrillo’s Alexis Hunt, 5-06
Shot put: Campolindo’s Pinkie Schnayer, 39-07.75
Triple jump: Bishop O’Dowd’s Amay DeFlorimonte, 37-03
Discus: Pittsburg’s Lauren Lemire, 131-11.00
Long jump: Castro Valley’s Lynee Sims, 18-05.50
Pole vault: Maria Carrillo’s Lily Mulligan, 12-07
4×100 relay: Pittsburg, 48.28
1,600: Montgomery’s Hanne Thomsen, 4:51.77
400: Heritage’s Eden Enoru, 57.76
300 hurdles: Convent of The Sacred Heart’s Charlotte Lyon, 45.15
3,200: Montgomery’s Hanne Thomsen, 10:30.40
Source: www.mercurynews.com