Stamatia Scarvelis defends her title in the shot put and seeks a win in the discus this weekend at the CIF State Track and Field Championships in Clovis.
Scarvelis will be joined by Dos Pueblos teammate Bryan Fernandez at the State Meet. The Oregon-bound Fernandez, a state champion in cross country, will be running in the 1600 meters.
Qualifying is on Friday at 3 (field events) and 5 p.m. (running) and the event finals are Saturday at 4:30 and 6 p.m. The weather is expected to hot with temperatures in the 90s.
Scarvelis is peaking at the right time. At last week’s CIF-SS Masters Meet, the junior threw the leading shot put mark in the nation at 51-9.25. Two weeks earlier, she went over 50 feet for the first time in her DP career, throwing 50-4.50 at the Division 2 Prelims.
She sent a message in the first meet of the season that she wasn’t taking things lightly after winning last year. She threw a personal best of 49-10 at the Don Green Invitational in Moorpark.
She hit the weight room for some heavy lifting, which affected the distance of her throws. Nevertheless, the marks during the middle of the season ranged between 46-49 feet.
Now she’s in peak form, going 50-4.50, 49-4.50 and 51-9.25 in the three CIF meets.
Her competition in Clovis figures to come from Alemany’s Nia Britt (best throw of 49.0.50), Nikki Okwekogu of Clovis West (48-10.25) and Tanya Sapa of La Sierra (48-5.50).
The State Meet record in the girls shot put is 52-11.50, set in 1993 by Kristin Heaston of Ygnacio Valley. The last two-time champion in the event was Anna Jelmini of Shafter in 2008-09.
In the discus, Scarvelis qualified at 146-6, and has a personal best of 161-6, which ranks third in the state. Okwelogu is the state leader at 168-4 followed by Arroyo Grande’s Madison Jacobs at 163-11.50. Amarie Bremel of Kingsburg has a best throw of 155-11 and Long Beach Millikan’s Destiny Talalemotu is at 147-5.
The boys 1600 should be extremely competitive. Blake Haney of Stockdale leads the field with a state-best of 4:10.39, but it’s a logjam after him. Fernandez qualified at 4:13.59 and has a season-best time of 4:12.62.
