Master-ful feats

CERRITOS ? Corona del Mar High track and field Coach Bill Sumner laid out a strategy for his two runners prior to the girls’ 3,200-meter race at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet at Cerritos College on Friday.

Annie St. Geme was supposed to conserve energy and focus on qualifying. Sumner wanted Shelby Buckley to stay with Woodbridge’s Christine Babcock.

Then the competitive juices kicked in and St. Geme finished first and Buckley third to qualify for next week’s CIF state championships. In all, six of the seven area athletes competing advanced to the state meet.

Last year, Buckley’s season ended at the Southern Section preliminaries, so the Masters Meet buildup was something foreign to her.

“It’s a huge change from last year,” she said. “I found myself thinking about it in the morning.”

St. Geme ? having already set a personal record in the 1,600, taking back the top time in the nation with a finish of 4 minutes, 42 seconds ? pulled away from Glendora’s Adamyk in the final 200 meters.

“I have all of this week to rest,” St. Geme said. “If I knew it would have taken an all-out effort, I wouldn’t have done it.”

With first- and second-place finishes in the shot put and discus, respectively, Newport Harbor senior Bo Taylor also left Cerritos College satisfied.

Taylor secured a spot in the state meet with his first throw, but that wasn’t enough. On his third attempt, he popped the shot three times in his palm then let loose a heave of 63 feet, 11 inches ? the seventh-best in the nation this year.

“Once I had qualified, I wanted to just go after it,” Taylor said. “I had nothing to lose, I was planning to [get a personal record].”

For the third consecutive year, Costa Mesa’s Jasmin Day won the Masters Meet high jump, this time with a jump of 5-8.

“It’s really a nice accomplishment, to keep the season going,” Day said.

The senior finished second at last year’s state meet, based on more attempts at the winning height. It’s a predicament Day would like to avoid this year.

“I have the height, I just have to put it all together,” she said.

Newport Harbor pole-vaulter Allison Stokke was all business, clearing 11-8 ? the automatic qualifying height for the state meet ? on her first jump of the evening. The junior finished second with a vault of 12-8.

“It was more of a relief,” Stokke said. “I know I have it, I just have to do it.”

Sage Hill’s Zach Chandy qualified in the 200 and 400 with third-place finishes in both. Chandy has set time goals for himself that he hopes will exceed his finishes of seventh in the 200 and eighth in the 400 last year at state.

“I want to run under 21 [seconds in the 200] and 47 [seconds in the 400],” Chandy said.