Shafter's Rasley keeps focus simple entering state track meet
| Thursday, Jun 02 2011 07:25 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 02 2011 07:58 PM
CIF State Track and Field Championships
WHEN: Today and Saturday. Today's field-event preliminaries begin at 3 p.m., with running events scheduled to start at 5. Field-event finals begin at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, with running events at 5.
WHERE: Veterans Memorial Stadium, Clovis. Take Highway 99 north to Highway 41 North (Exit 131B). Then merge to Highway 180 East and Highway 168 East. Exit at Herndon Ave., turn right on Herndon, left on Clovis Ave., and left on Nees Ave.
TICKETS: $10 general admission and $7 students/seniors/children for Friday. $12/$8 for Saturday. $5 parking fee.
WHO: Some of the best high school athletes in the country. California students currently hold national leading marks in eight events and the national high school record in 18. Of those 18, 11 of them occurred at the state meet. Included this year will be 25 local qualifiers, including defending girls discus champion Alex Collatz of Stockdale.
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Shafter's Lacie Rasley brought home a section championship for the Generals in the girls shot put at Saturday's meet in Clovis. (John Harte / Special to The Californian)
The CIF has moved the girls shot put at this weekend's State Track and Field Championships to primetime, which should increase interest among spectators jammed into Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.
What it won't increase is angst in Shafter senior Lacie Rasley, at least if everything goes according to plan.
"I'm going to go in and try and have no idea what anyone is saying," Rasley said. "Just me, coach and the ring. That's what I'm trying to do. Just me, coach and the ring. No one else."
Rasley is among 25 state qualifiers from Kern County and is one of the favorites in the girls shot put. The meet's preliminaries start at 3 p.m. today -- though the girls shot put, which used to be among the first events to start, isn't scheduled to go off until 8 -- with finals beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The shot put appears wide open. Anything close to a personal record from Rasley would put her near the top of the medal stand.
"I just want to PR," Rasley said. "If I PR and I get last place, I'll be thrilled. I just want that PR. It's been a while."
Throwing titles are nothing new to Kern County, which has won at least two of the four throwing events (boys and girls) in each of the past three years. Stockdale senior Alex Collatz, even though she returned from a severe knee injury only five weeks ago, is favored to defend her girls discus title.
But Rasley's story is a bit different than elite throwers who have trained for their events since a young age.
After qualifying for state in 2009 but mssing the shot put finals by one spot, Rasley exploded on to the state-wide radar early during her junior season. She set a PR with a throw of 46 feet, 7 inches and suddenly was the heir apparent to Anna Jelmini, who set state shot put and discus record and won four state championships at Shafter.
"She doesn't want the noteriety," Shafter throwing coach Matt Godbehere said. "She just wants to train and go out and throw. She had that big throw last year, and all of a sudden it was on DyeStat and state leader, all of this. I don't think she dealt with that well. But you know what? She's a young athlete. And it's learning to be comfortable in that skin that, 'Hey, I am good, and it's all right.'"
The big throw was quite an accomplishment for a student who went out for softball as a freshman and only joined the track team when throwing coach Matt Godbehere discovered her during a P.E. class in the school's weight room.
"I looked at her frame, her levers and the fact she was working in class," Godbehere said. "I don't think she had any idea what she was getting herself into. But she bought in fast. She's a hard worker and a great kid."
But for Rasley, the next step has proven elusive. Though she took eighth at state last year, she hasn't matched that 46-7 since and has struggled matching her performance in practice when it comes to competition.
"She's actually been practicing well for a while," Godbehere said. "But she had some hiccups, she got sick, had a slick ring. I don't want to make excuses, but there were things that weren't necessarily setting her up for success.
"But it's learning to get over nerves, and use that nervous energy to really let yourself go."
Both Rasley and Godbehere think this might be the weekend for a breakthrough.
"If I throw like I have these past couple of weeks in practice, I'll do really well," Rasley said. "I come really close to PRs in practice, and then in meets, I get all tense. I just want to go and throw now."
If it is, Rasley could move on to Boise State with a state championship in tow, something that would be a sensational end to a career that history, its attention on Jelmini and Collatz, hasn't fully appreciated.
"I did better when I was with Anna," Rasley said. "Everyone was looking at her, and I could do my thing. Not that no one cared, but everyone was looking at Anna. It was nice. I just kind of went out and threw.
"But now it's like, 'What's Lacie gonna do?'"
