San Lorenzo Valley High School runners Anna Maxwell and Cody Johnson ran away from the competition on Friday, May 25, to capture Central Coast Section track and field championships in their events.
But they are not the only locals set to compete this weekend in Clovis at the California Interscholastic Federation meet. Several other Cougar runners performed well at Sections and qualified for the prestigious state championships Friday, June 1, and Saturday, June 2, at Buchanan High School.
“As a coach, I thought it went awesome,” SLV head coach Rob Collins said. “Everyone ran extremely well.”
During the Section meet in Gilroy, Maxwell secured the 3,200-meter title, as a sophomore, in 10 minutes, 21.04 seconds — more than 14 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Vanessa Estrada of San Benito. Vanessa Fraser of Scotts Valley (10:43.73) finished third in the event and also qualified for the state meet.
Maxwell is seeded No. 3 while Fraser is No. 20 heading into the state championship.
Cody Johnson, an SLV junior, broke the school record in the 800 meters by running 1:53.49 to also win the Section championship by nearly a full second. He is the No. 7 seed heading into state.
In the boys 3,200, senior Nick Hicks sprinted through the final lap, edging several competitors to finish third in 9:24.28 and qualified for state as the No. 21 seed.
In a tight finish, the SLV boys 4×400-meter relay team of Jonny Cooper, Billy Mullins, Lucas Sinnott and Cody Johnson took second with a time of 3:21.41 and qualified for state as the No. 20 seed.
Other notables from the finals were Scotts Valley senior Ranae Maloney, who took fifth in the 300-meter hurdles in 47:49; Scotts Valley senior Alex Benko, who cleared 13 feet in the pole vault to take fifth; and SLV sophomore Claire MacMillan, who ran the 1,600 in 5:13.86 for eighth.
Johnson, Maxwell and Fraser all ran at the same events in the 2011 state meet. Johnson did not make the state finals; Maxwell finished 11th and Fraser 15th.
