Junior Achievement at State Meet

Juniors Anita Siraki of Hoover High and Schquay Brignac of Taft each made decisions earlier this season that helped them win individual girls’ titles before 11,623 in the state track and field championships at Cerritos College on Saturday.

Siraki and Coach Greg Switzer of Hoover decided several weeks ago that she would run only the 3,200 meters in the state meet, and that was a major factor in her posting a runaway victory in a school-record 10:18.50.

Brignac, who transferred from Cleveland to Taft last August, wasn’t sure she was going to compete this season because of her allegiance to her former school.

She joined the team and cleared a school record of 5-9 in the high jump to become Taft’s first girl state champion and help the Toreadors tie for seventh in the team standings with 18 points.

Siraki gave Hoover its 17th individual state title and made her the third Tornado athlete to win a girls’ title.

But she was disappointed that rival--and friend--Alejandra Barrientos of Felton San Lorenzo Valley was unable to run after a leg injury forced her to drop out of a qualifying heat of the 1,600 on Friday night.

“I was really upset when I found out what happened to her,” Siraki said.

“You never want to see that happen to an athlete in the state meet after they’ve trained so hard all season.”

Siraki, who won the 1,600 and 3,200 in the Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College on May 26, clocked 5:12.9 for the first 1,600 before running the second half of the race in 5:05.6 to post the second fastest time in the nation this year behind Barrientos’ 10:11.19.

Siraki solidified her hold on fifth place on the all-time region list.

“My coach has been trying to get me to run even splits all season,” Siraki said.

“But I’ve been running negative splits.”

Brignac, an age-group phenom who cleared a career best of 5-10 for the West Valley Eagles when she was in the eighth grade in 1997, placed fourth in the 1998 state meet, but failed to qualify for the final last year.

Brignac cleared 5-2, 5-4, 5-6 and 5-8 on her first attempts in the state final before clearing 5-9 on her second.

Sophomore Rachael Ziemann of Huntington Beach Edison also cleared 5-9 on her second attempt, but Brignac won because she had fewer misses in the competition.

“This is that much more special because of everything that happened,” Brignac said.

“It turned out it didn’t matter who I competed for as long as I competed.”

Junior Porchea Carroll of Rio Mesa came within an eyelash of winning the 100 but was nipped at the finish line by senior Sani Roseby of Monterey. They clocked 11.90.

“I was just hoping that I was going to be able to make it to the end of the race,” said Carroll, who strained her left quadriceps muscle while finishing sixth in the long jump in 18-4 1/2.

“I’m very happy with my performance.”

Other runner-up finishes went to junior Melissa Astete of Birmingham in the pole vault at 12 feet and to senior Jessica Cosby of Cleveland, whose school-record of 49-0 3/4 in the shotput barely missed the region record of 49-2 set by Dolores Tuimoloau of Channel Islands in 1994.