Prystupa skies to second at CIF Championships
NORWALK - Though eight local entrants from Burroughs High, Burbank and Bellarmine-Jefferson had aspirations of advancing out of Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Track and Field Championships at Cerritos College, only one did.
Burroughs’ senior pole vaulter Sarah Prystupa just fell short of picking up a Division I championship, but still earned second place in a personal-record mark of 12 feet, 3 inches and punched her ticket to Friday’s Masters Meet back in Norwalk.
“I was shooting for a PR, so 12-3 is awesome and I’m really glad,” said Prystupa, who entered with a previous best mark of 12 feet.
Prystupa tied with Peninsula’s Jacqueline Ahrens for the division lead of 12-3 and both girls fell short of the next standard of 12-9.
Needing to break the tie, there was an additional jump of 12-9 given to both athletes.
While Prystupa missed, Ahrens did not and took home the title.
Even with that slight setback, there was nothing but joy for Prystupa, whose mark tied for second-best on the day.
“When I got 12-3, I was so happy,” she said. “All my hard work paid off.”
Unfortunately, even the best work ethic can collide with bad luck.
Such was the case for the Burbank boys’ 4x400-meter relay team of Martin Swan, Noah Powell, Joey Miller and Josh Cantong.
Midway through the second lap of its race, there was a push, a fall and two squads - Burbank and Trabuco Hills - had runners avoid a downed athlete by moving out of their lanes.
In the process of doing so, Burbank was disqualified, but not before receiving and then having to give back fifth-place medals in what would have been a mark of 3 minutes, 21.28 seconds. The mark would have made the Bulldogs a Masters first alternate.
“I’m just pissed off because of the circumstances and because of the fall,” an emotional Cantong said after the race. “You know what, this memory is going to stay with me for a long time. I had a goal for my team to get past this week.”
Powell gritted out his leg of the relay after injuring himself in the triple jump. Even so, Powell still placed eighth in the event in 43 feet.
“I was only able to get three jumps off,” Powell said. “I was just trying to save whatever I have left for the relay.”
Swan took eighth in the 110-meter hurdles with a mark of 14.85, which fell short of his preliminaries mark of 14.65.
Burbank’s Mitchell Aslo finished ninth in the discus with a throw of 149-6.
Burbank’s Juliana La France was the Bulldog who came closest to advancing to Masters.
La France finished fourth in the Division I triple jump in 37 feet, which bested her prelims mark of 35-10 1/2. La France is a second alternate to Masters.
Burroughs senior Niko Guerrero found himself in a field that included Olympic hopeful Michael Norman in the Division I 400-meter dash.
Guerrero ultimately finished ninth in his division with a mark of 49.91.
“It’s a great honor to be able to run with guys who I know are superior and are the top athletes in California,” said Guerrero, who entered with a prelims mark of 49.70. “It feels good and I appreciate this chance. It’s unbelievable and I’m very proud to have made it here.”
Bell-Jeff sophomore Caitlyn Couch, a three-event Santa Fe League champion, was given a chance to compete in the Division IV 1,600-meter as an alternate.
Couch entered ninth-seeded and placed seventh in a mark of 5:30.24.
“I had this whole race strategy when I found out that I made it on Wednesday,” Couch said. “But then, it’s not what my body wanted today. I wanted to break my record, but it didn’t happen. The good thing for me is that I got some experience and have two years left.”
Though Couch didn’t best her preliminaries mark of 5:17.72, the sophomore was her school’s first girls’ qualifier in at least five years.
