SD Prep Sports
www.geocities.com/sdprepsports
South County trio gets run of fourth-place medals at state meet
By Phillip Brents
There is an old German proverb — Aller guten Dinge sind drei — that says all good things come in threes.
For the three Metro Conference participants in last Saturday’s CIF state track and field meet in Sacramento, all good things came in fours as Sweetwater’s Aigamarie Taumua and Trandon Harvey and Hilltop’s Desiree Davila all captured fourth-place finishes in their respective events.
"To have two at the same time (Taumua and Harvey) is really nice. That’s the best showing we’ve had since I been here," explained Sweetwater coach Tim Latham. "The kids were hoping to do much better but the competition there was difficult, as was competing on back-to-back days."
Taumua, the San Diego Section girls shot put champion, recorded a finals put of 43 feet, 11 inches in finals competition after posting the third-best prelim put of 44-3 in competition the previous day. She ended her junior season by setting a section record in the event at 46-101/4 in the division prelims.
Harvey, who finished second in both the boys long jump and triple jump at the section’s state qualifying meet the previous week, earned his fourth-place state medal in the long jump rather than his specialty event, the triple jump, in which he had also qualified for the state prelims. Harvey set a school record in the state prelim meet last Friday with a long jump of 23-43/4 (sixth best in the prelims) and jumped 22-8 to place fourth in the finals field the next day.
Davila, the South Bay League’s 800-, 1,600- and 3,200-meter champion, improved on her fifth-place finish in the 1,600 run at last year’s state meet with a 10:41.55 time in the 3,200 run in this year’s state finals. Davila posted the top time in the event at the section championship meet the previous week at 10:46.59. Her season best remained 10:40.2.
Eastlake’s Wade Curry made the finals in the boys high jump, placing eighth with a jump of 6-4 after advancing with a 6-6 height in the prelims. The top six finishers in the finals earned medals.
Harvey, who at one time this season owned the second-best triple jump mark in the state at 48-3, failed to qualify for the event in the finals with a prelim jump of 47-31/2. He joined Bonita Vista’s Austin Neudecker on the sidelines after the Baron jumper posted a non-qualifying mark of 44-03/4 in the prelims.
Sweetwater’s Erin Asay cleared 11-2 in the girls pole vault in last Friday’s state prelims to also fail to advance to finals competition the next day. She won the section title with a school record vault of 12-0.