Scotts Valley senior Aaron Weiss needed to place third or better in the boys 800-meter race during last weekend’s Central Coast Section Track and Field finals to keep his spring campaign alive.
With the season on the line, the Falcons standout runner turned on the afterburner with nearly 300 meters remaining. He stormed back to place fourth but barely missed the automatic qualifier spot by one place.
Winded and exhausted, Weiss bent over to place his hands on his knees for a breather while thinking his prep career most likely had come to a conclusion.
That was until the public address speakers at Gilroy High School announced Weiss advanced to the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships with a qualifying time of 1 minute, 53.05 seconds — barely getting under the at-large mark of 1:53.13.
Weiss jumped up and down with a huge smile on his face before yelling out a classic “Wooo” as he glared toward the crowd in the grandstands.
“I was just hoping I made the qualifying time,” he said. “I knew I didn’t get that top-three, but it felt like a quick race. I was just hoping I had gotten that, and I squeaked in barely. I’m super stoked for that.”
Menlo-Atherton junior Evan Chopra won the race in 1:51.42, followed by Branham freshman Alex Garza (1:52.19) in second and Los Altos junior Lucas Barbou-des-Places (1:52.47) in third.
Weiss will join the top-three placers on the trek to Veterans Memorial Stadium at Buchanan High School in Clovis. The preliminaries are set for Friday at 3pm, while the finals are scheduled Saturday at 4:30pm.
“[Weiss has] wanted this so bad,” Scotts Valley head coach Todd Hoffman said. “He’s missed it a couple of times, and he really puts himself in a position…. He also has that grit and determination, and it’s just fun. He earned this so much and I’m proud of him.”
Weiss recalls the final 100 meters were a little rough to get through, yet he still managed to set a new personal best finish and punched his ticket to the CIF State Championships.
“The form kind of went out the window, and it wasn’t as great as I had wanted, but 300 to go I made up some ground and made up some positioning to get there,” he said.
Weiss, who defended his 800 title at the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League finals on May 2, said ideally he wanted a quick start to get into a position toward the front while trying to stay off the rail.
“Which did not happen,” added a chuckling Weiss, who got put onto the rail about 300 meters into the race. “I had to do a lot of work in the 400 and 500-meter mark to get off the rail.”
Weiss surged his way from seventh up to fourth place until he reached the finish line.
It’s been sort of a redemption season for Weiss, who had to sit out for a couple of weeks while nursing an injured ankle. There were times he questioned whether or not he was getting faster, yet he patiently waited for the end of the spring campaign.
“He just doesn’t let things get him down,” Hoffman said. “He does it right and works hard.”
Weiss now gets to extend his season for one more week en route to Clovis for a shot to podium on the big stage at the CIF State Championships — a dream of his since his sophomore year.
“Probably my number one goal outside of a time mark is just to get to State,” Weiss said. “To accomplish a season goal for the last couple of years made me incredibly happy, kind of just felt like all the hard work paid off to get there.”
