Ridgeview boys seeking title-worthy performance
| Friday, May 22 2009 11:00 PM
Last Updated Friday, May 22 2009 11:00 PM
When Today -- 4 p.m. for field events and 5 p.m. for running events
Where Veterans Memorial Stadium, Clovis-Buchanan High School
Directions Take Highway 99 north about 105 miles. Exit onto Highway 41 north; go 2.5 miles. Exit 128A onto Highway 180 east; go 1.3 miles. Exit 60A onto Highway 168 east; go about seven miles. Exit 7 for Herndon Ave; turn right, then left on Clovis Ave. Follow Clovis Ave about a mile, then turn left on Nees. Memorial Stadium is on the corner of Nees and Minnewawa, with the main parking lot on the west side. The school's address is 1560 N. Minnewawa Ave.
Tickets $6 for adults, $4 for students with ID, $3 for seniors.
Moving on The top three finishers in each event qualify for the CIF State Championships on June 5-6.
Jelmini watch Shafter record-breaker Anna Jelmini will begin shot put competition at 4 p.m. and is scheduled for discus competition at 6.
Other locals to watch:
BOYS -- Isiah Purvis, Ridgeview, 200, 400; Walter Hunt, Bakersfield, 200, 400; Marty Affentranger, Liberty, 400, long jump; Jerrid Lewis, Ridgeview, 800; Chris Schwartz, Foothill, 1,600, 3,200; Ridgeview's 1,600 relay team; Phillip McCullum, Garces, high jump; Johnny Carter, Ridgeview, triple jump; Matt Darr, Frontier, shot put, discus.
GIRLS -- Brushay Wandick, Bakersfield, 100, 200; Taylor Jackson, Frontier, 100 hurdles, 300 hurdles; Bakersfield's 400 relay team; Amanda Klinchuch, Liberty, pole vault; Shanesha Epps, Golden Valley, long jump; Alex Collatz, Stockdale, triple jump, discus; Lacie Rasley, Shafter, shot put, discus.
Images
Casey Christie / The Californian A barefoot Ridgeview High sprinter, Ronnie Wiley, right, gets ready to hand the baton to one of his teammates, Tynell Robertson, Friday at Ridgeview during practice for Saturday's Central Section track championships in Fresno.
If you were to write a play about the Ridgeview boys track and field team's 2009, you'd have three distinct acts -- with the curtain opening on the third today at the Central Section Championships at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Act I would open with a solid track team brimming with athletes and led by an energetic young coach, Adam Setser. They'd get their big break when senior Isiah Purvis, a 200- and 400-meter star from Liberty, transferred to Ridgeview's district to live with his mother.
"With him helping in the (1,600-meter relay) and his individual scores in the 200 and 400," Setser said, "he made a good team what could turn into a great team."
After a brief intermission, we return to the stage to find the Wolf Pack struggling to maintain that greatness. A host of problems, injuries chief among them, have threatened to derail the team from its ultimate goal of a section championship.
The injuries include nagging pains of Purvis and, perhaps most important, groin and ankle injuries that have sidelined defending state triple jump champion Johnny Carter for most of the year. Other problems have included suspensions and defections.
"It's been pretty hard on us," Purvis said. "But we've gone through it. We've got a lot of great athletes to take spots and fill in for the time being. We've just tried to do the best we can."
Still, the curtain closed on Act II with banged-up Ridgeview plowing through the SWYL and South Area meets. The Wolf Pack has qualified its state-ranked 1,600 relay team to the section meet, along with Purvis, Carter and Jerrid Lewis, who leads the section in the 800, among others, to the section meet. It begins at 4 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
"We're pumped," Lewis said. "We're ready to go."
The third act will focus on the chase -- can Ridgeview catch host Buchanan, a deep and balanced team that has been heavily favored throughout the year?
If you'd asked Setser that a month ago, he would have said no.
"They looked like they might score 110 points at the meet," he said. "Normally our team would win it handily. I've never seen a team like Buchanan. They're a monster."
For comparison, Fresno-Central won last year's competition with just 48 points.
Setser thinks the gap this year might be closing -- Buchanan had a couple of stumbles at the North Area meet and dropped down the rankings in some events. On paper, Setser said, Buchanan still has a 20-point edge on Ridgeview, with Visalia-Redwood also in the running.
So will this drama have a happy ending for Ridgeview?
"You just never know what's going to happen," Setser said. "Anyone's capable of a slip-up. We need something like that to happen. And then we need to perform."
Also of note in the boys meet:
* Chris Schwartz of Foothill will look to defend his double section title in the 1,600 and 3,200 meters, though he'll drop the one-mile race for the state meet, June 5-6 also at Buchanan.
* Frontier junior Matt Darr is favored to win both the shot put and discus. He'd follow double 2008 state champ Dayshan Ragans of Foothill in becoming the latest Kern County throwing champ.
* Purvis and Bakersfield's Walter Hunt have had a number of close 200 races this year. If anyone can challenge Central's Brendon Bigelow at the meet, it might be one of those two. Purvis' former Liberty teammate Marty Affentranger will also be a factor in the 400.
* Garces has a pair of standouts to watch: Matt Sumlin in the 100 meters and Phillip McCullum in the high jump.
