State leader Nick Scarvelis should get pushed Friday in the shot put at the CIF-Southern Section Masters Track and Field Meet at Cerritos College.
The Masters is the final step before the CIF State Meet. The top five finishers in each event advance to next week’s state championships in Clovis.
Friday’s meet will be streamed live at foxsportswest.com: http://www.foxsportswest.com/pages/video_live/
Scarvelis leads the list of local athletes who qualified for the Masters.
The Southern Section Division 2 champion has the state’s leading mark of 65-4. He threw 63-8.75 in the divisional final last week to lead all qualifiers. On Friday, he’ll go up against Division 1 champion Jake Fraser of El Toro, the No. 2-ranked shot putter in the state at 63-5. He won his division at 60-7.50.
Scarvelis also will be competing in the discus. He threw a season-best 180-9 at the divisional finals, ranking him seventh in the state and third out of all divisions in the Southern Section.
The UCLA-bound Scarvelis will be joined by his freshman sister, Stamatia (shot put, 8th overall qualifying mark at 39-11) and DP senior teammates Sergey Sushchikh (3200, 8th at 9:12.01) and Marina Plesons (girls pole vault, 9th at 11-9).
San Marcos has a contingent of six athletes competing. Division 3 champion Shane Rowan enters the triple jump competition with the fourth best mark (and personal record) from the divisional finals at 47-3. The mark is No. 12 in the state.
Division 3 runner-up Elysia Hodges will be competing in a very fast field in the 300 hurdles. Nine of the top 10 marks in the state are by Southern Section athletes, and The Westmont-bound Hodges is 10th at 43.58. The mark was the ninth fastest overall at the divisional finals.
Division 3 high jump champion and Cal Poly-bound Hannah McDaniel is tied for 10th on the state list in the at 5-6. There are four jumpers in the section who have gone higher, with the top mark being 5-8.
McDaniel and Hodges also will be competing on the Royals’ 4×400 relay team with Kaylin Koopmans and UC Irvine-bound Marie Brashears. The clocked under 3:50 at the division finals with a 3:49.51. That time was fifth fastest out off all divisions last week.
Harvard-bound Connor Reck of Santa Ynez will be competing in the boys 800. The Division 4 champion advanced with the eighth fastest time (1:53.84) at the divisional finals.
