Several athletes, coaches still interested in potential meets, but Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic results in first incomplete track and field schedule in California since World War II with CIF’s decision not to hold spring postseason or state championship events

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

It wasn’t a shock, but when California’s governing body for high school athletics announced it canceled all of its spring sports postseason, Dublin track and field coach Chris Williams still vowed to get in one more meet for 2020.

It can be an open meet, he said. It can be anywhere between now and the beginning of cross country season.

Williams just wants something for a senior class that got its legs pulled out from under it.

“I’ll go as far as all the way up until the official starting date of cross country,” said Williams, who is also Dublin’s cross country coach and the meet director for the annual Dublin Distance Fiesta, the largest distance-only high school track invitational in the country.

“I’ll do a meet on Aug. 8, if that’s the latest we can go, but I want to do something.”

The California Interscholastic Federation and its 10 section commissioners did announce Friday it canceled all spring playoffs and state championships due to fears over the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Many of the state’s districts had already opted to close its campuses for the rest of the school year before the decision was made by CIF Executive Director Ron Nocetti.

While that move was expected, what has varied is how coaches and athletes have moved on, knowing there won’t be any normal sense of a track season. For the first time since 1945, there won’t be a state-championship meet in the Golden State.

Some, like Williams, are determined to provide closure for his seniors, as well as other student-athletes. The Class of 2020 is losing the usual routines of a senior year, a tough hand for students born in late 2001 and 2002 in the shadow of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“In all the sports realm of everything, this high school group of seniors is the only group who doesn’t get another season,” said Williams, alluding to pro athletes and college athletes who can retain an additional season of eligibility in spring sports.

“This is it for them,” he added. “I feel it’s been really, really tough having to see them go through this.”

Clovis Buchanan, also the state meet’s host, and neighboring Clovis North entered this year with as much momentum as anyone. Buchanan’s girls won the state track and field crown last year and its distance runners, led by Arkansas-bound senior Corie Smith, unseated Great Oak for the first time in seven years to win the Division 1 cross country title in November at Woodward Park in Fresno.

As far as the track and field title is concerned, Buchanan will have to wait another calendar year to defend it.

“In a high school student’s life, when sports has been such a big picture for this entire time, (you) have it taken away because of the unknown,” Buchanan coach Brian Weaver said. “Injuries, you get, Not qualifying to go on – OK, they understand the process. This is a process that kids have a hard time understanding.

“They’ve lost everything,” Weaver added. “Kids have lost dances, the prom, grad night, and their graduations.”

Clovis North won the boys’ state team title a year ago, led by Florida commit Caleb Foster, who won the long jump and triple jump to go along with runner-up finishes in the 110-meter hurdles and as part of the 4x100 relay team. North also has UC Davis signee Isaiah Galindo, a seventh-place finisher in the 3,200 last year, who was the Division 1 state runner-up in cross country.

With a scholarship waiting, it could be easy for Foster to move on and look ahead to college.

No way, said Clovis North coach Rich Brazil.

“He’s the ultimate competitor, no matter that he already signed with Florida,” Brazil said. “I know he wants to be on the track. There’s no question with the amount of work he was putting in before. I think it’s heartbreaking for him.”

Brazil said the Clovis Unified School District has not shut down and is still eyeing May 4 for students to return to school. Fresno County’s COVID-19 numbers have been lower than many of California’s other counties.

And while state championships are out, the CIF did leave a door open for individual leagues to stage potential competitions, if they choose, and if the stay-at-home order is lifted.

“We’re still looking for the possibility of coming back to school and getting to meet with our kids that first week of May,” Brazil said. “And then maybe doing something (track-wise) within Clovis Unified with our kids.

“Our seniors and seniors across the country were just getting going,” he added. “I feel awful for those guys.”

Newbury Park senior Nico Young, the Division 2 state and Nike Cross Nationals cross country champion – as well as the new national high school indoor record holder for the 3,000 meters – has continued his business-like routine. He’s also added perspective.

“It definitely does make all the achievements in cross country and the 3K record more meaningful,” he said.

Young, a Northern Arizona commit, said he is continuing training and doing online school each week. And he’s been doing his other love – cooking – and a lot of it. He would eventually like to do his own cookbook.

Asked what he’s been cooking during this down time, Young said, “recently, a lot of baking.”

Canyon Crest Academy senior Carlie Dorostkar, a recent UCLA commit and the reigning Division 1 state cross country champion, said she missed the camaraderie of her track team. This was also to be her only season running with her twin sisters, freshmen Sammi and Nikki.

“It’s tough,” Dorostkar said. “I think, mostly, it’s not really about the times, or just having the races, but I think it’s mostly about having that last season with my teammates as a senior.”

Dorostkar, who was seeking her first state track title, said she’s been doing a lot of walking and reading to pass the time, and, like Young, cooking.

She said she made homemade bagels, brownies and banana bread a few days ago.

“Just trying out new recipes,” Dorostkar said.

Some athletes have seen promising returns from injury cut short.

Menlo’s Charlotte Tomkinson, a Duke signee, has been out since a month into the fall cross country season with a foot injury. She missed the entire indoor season – including the Nike Boise Indoor meet, when a club team made up mostly of Menlo girls won its second consecutive 4x800 title.

Menlo coach Jorge Chen said Tomkinson, the state runner-up last year to Samantha Wallenstrom of Marin Catholic in the 800, was going to make her season debut March 14 at the Wildcat Relays in Watsonville, which was canceled that week.

Chen said his team, too, may look at trying a small meet or two before summer.

“We might have a time trial here and there and see what Charlotte can run,” he said.

Chen said he and about 30 other California high school coaches have been meeting on Zoom each Saturday morning. They’ve thrown out the idea of doing a virtual 4x1,600 later in April, using submitted videos and added up time, “just for fun.”

“We’re just trying to do things in order to keep the kids engaged,” Chen said, “so there’s something to shoot for with all this uncertainty.”

One of this year’s state-title favorites, from the Southern Section, was Great Oak. Wolfpack coach Doug Soles usually has a loaded roster, but this senior class has been particularly special.

Senior Tori Gaitan, the 2018 girls Division 1 state cross country champion, has battled a growth injury and illness for more than a year and was primed for a big senior track season.

“I think she’s bummed that she doesn’t get to show how all the hard work she’s done pays off,” said Soles, who said he’s already starting to transition to cross country training for his distance runners. “But I think she’s also smart enough to know that she’ll parlay that into a great cross country season at Northern Arizona.”

Arianna Griffiths, Audrey Dang and Gaitan, along with boys standouts Chris Verdugo and Gabe Abbes are among those graduating for the Wolfpack, who swept the team titles at the California Winter Outdoor Championships in February at Arcadia High.

“I think this class is particularly difficult because not only are they really nice kids, almost every single one of them started and finished,” Soles added. “Just such a deep group of kids that didn’t give up along the way. Not having that pay off for them is heartbreaking for me as a coach.”

Upland was another Southern Section power eyeing potential state crowns with jumper and hurdler Namir Hemphill for the boys and the returning state long jump champ, Caelyn Harris, for the girls.

“We definitely saw the writing on the wall,” Upland coach Tarina Brown said. “But we were hoping it wasn’t going to get canceled.”

Harris, a sophomore, will be back. Hemphill, a senior and state finalist in the triple jump and 300 hurdles, won’t. He is also still looking to make his college choice.

“The really disappointing thing is he just started hurdles last year and went all the way to state,” Brown said. “We were expecting big things this year. And he opened up (the season) in the triple jump with a one-foot PR and went 49-11.

“To have it all cut short and then not have the scholarship is disappointing.”

At Carmichael Jesuit near Sacramento, Portland-bound senior Matt Strangio was hoping to have the right finish to a decorated four-year career.

He had a tremendous state meet last year, winning the 1,600 in 4:08.07 and finishing third in 8:57.69 in the 3,200. Last fall, he won a second straight Division 1 state title in cross country in 14:43.5. He also ran 4:03.57 in a 1,600 time trial Saturday at Elk Grove High.

“Having my senior season taken away definitely (stinks),” Strangio said. “I had some really big goals, including breaking 4 minutes in the mile, which I now won’t be able to run in a Jesuit uniform. I’m hopeful that there will be some open races in the summer that I’ll have a chance to compete.”

Rancho Bernardo junior Ashley Callahan, the state’s reigning pole vault champion, has had to think outside the box a bit during her time off.

“It’s really unique and you can’t just say, ‘go to your backyard and do it,’” she said. “You need all your equipment.”

Callahan, who defeated Westlake’s Paige Sommers and North San Diego County neighbor Camryn Thomson of Poway last year to win with a 13-4 clearance, said she has continued training at home and even has gone to social media for ideas on different drills. She's also made good use of “stubbies” – broken, or short poles – laying around the house.

“I live on a hill,” she said, “so I do runs up the hill and I have a pullup bar. I just mainly keep myself in shape so I can get right back into it.”

Callahan had been nursing an ankle injury and was ready to make her return when the season was shut down, looking forward to the first of many potential matchups against Sommers – the national junior class record holder with a 14-6 clearance – at the Arcadia Invitational.

Above all, the track and field community loses with so much talent in California losing senior years, including Stockton St. Mary’s standout Jamar Marshall, an Arizona State signee who ranks as the No. 2 all-time prep performer in the 110-meter hurdles at 13.22.

The Arcadia Invitational would’ve been this weekend, which could have meant another potential 3,200 showdown involving Young and Valor Christian CO senior Cole Sprout, with Young prevailing by an 8:40.0 to 8:40.73.

Perhaps even the national record of 8:34.23, set by Riverbank's German Fernandez in 2008, would have been challenged.

“All of us,” Chen said. “We were really looking forward to seeing that.”