Chandy sizzles

Chris Yemma

Zach Chandy was calm, collected and as cool as he could be in the

blazing heat prior to running his main event Saturday.

Last year’s trip to the CIF Southern Section track and field

divisional finals provided him the experience he needed gain an edge

this time around at Cerritos College.

“I was a little over focused last year,” he said.

Not this year.

The Sage Hill School junior officially became the Division IV 200-

and 400-meter champion after clocking blistering personal bests in

both to qualify for Friday’s Masters meet at the same venue.

“I was sitting in the shade blocking everything out [before the

400],” said Chandy, Division IV’s runner-up in both events last

season as a sophomore. “I was focused, but I wasn’t getting too into

it.”

His new pre-race philosophy prevailed, helping him post a division

record and the third-fastest time of the day in the 400 in 47.74

seconds, behind Long Beach Poly’s Bryshon Nellum (47.28) and La

Sierra’s Ennis Jones (47.60), both of other divisions.

Chandy’s rise this season has been timed to near perfection, with

his times steadily decreasing and his best times coming at the CIF

finals. His goal entering the race was to break 48 seconds, something

he had never done before. At the Orange County championships earlier

this year, he came close, clocking 48.10 for first.

“I always like to compare his times with where he was a year ago,”

Sage Coach Nate Miller said. “And he’s gotten better and better, from

the beginning, to [the Arcadia invitational] to the [county

championships].”

And now to the CIF championships.

“I didn’t actually think I would win both,” said Chandy, whose

time of 21.49 in the event qualified him in fifth for the Masters. “I

was a little bit surprised about the 200. When I got ahead of them in

the first 100 I was pretty excited, so the last 100 I just tried to

keep with it.”

* Newport Harbor teammates Bo Taylor, a junior, and senior Trevor

Theriot paced the Sailors with a 3-4 finish in the Division II shot

put to qualify for the Masters meet.

Taylor, entering with the top preliminary mark in both the shot

and discus, tossed 58 feet, 1 1/4 inches in the shot put to finish

third. Theriot, who had an eighth-seed preliminary qualification

mark, threw 55-9 to move up to fourth.

Taylor threw 171-1 in the discus, off his qualifying mark and

personal-best 179-4, to finish fourth and barely miss the Masters.

“I was hoping for more man,” Taylor said. “I’ve been throwing like

180 all week, so that’s what I was hoping for.”

* Estancia junior Ernesto Castaneda finished fourth in the

Division III 800 in 1:56.96, a personal record, while Eagles’ senior

Bryce McKendry finished seventh in the long jump (21-3).

“The first lap was faster than what I’m used to,” he said. “They

were going so fast, I almost had to kill myself to pass one of them.”