GILROY >> Joe Oard switched from running the 800 meters to the 400 meters this season not because he wasn’t good at it — he qualified to the Central Coast Section Track and Field Semifinals last year as a sophomore — but because his body rejected it.
“Last year, when I ran the 800, I would cramp up on the second lap,” the San Lorenzo Valley High junior said. “So I decided to stick to one lap.”
The moral of this story? It pays to listen to your body. After listening to his, Oard has blossomed into one of the best 400 runners in the section.
During the 2016 edition of the semifinals at Gilroy High on Saturday, Oard, who entered the event with the fastest 400 time in the section, easily won his heat. His time of 50.22 seconds was the fourth fastest time of the day and qualifies him for the CCS Track and Field Finals, scheduled for Friday at Gilroy High.
The lanky runner said he feels like he has it in him to finish in the top three there and qualify for state. But he wouldn’t exactly say his body is on board.
“I’m in a lot of pain right now,” he said, noting he still cramps up but can better endure it over the shorter distance, “but I feel like I can run faster.”
He and four other Santa Cruz County athletes will get their chance to go faster, or higher, in the CCS finals, where an escalated level of competition can push them to new levels.
Sam Schubert of SLV was already taking advantage of that in Saturday’s trials. The county’s only male double qualifier turned in the top time (14.4) in the 110 high hurdles and the fifth fastest time (39.89) in the 300 hurdles. He also competed in the long jump, but placed 16th with a leap of 20-5½ to miss advancing by three places.
Schubert, who qualified for state in the 110 hurdles as a junior, took the most pride in his 300 performance. On the cusp of the top eight entering the race, he shaved seven-tenths off his personal best, a feat he credited to heat winner Charlie Geaves of Los Gatos.
“You can’t really feel a tenth of a second when you’re running,” Schubert said. “But coming over the last two hurdles, it felt like it was really fast because I was trying to catch him.”
Santa Cruz junior speedster Nathan Friedman also let his competition set the pace in the 200, where he took second in his heat and qualified fifth overall in 22.38.
Earlier in the day, Friedman had missed out on qualifying for the 100 final by thousandths of a second when he was one of three competitors to finish in 11.22. Rather than be dejected by his close call, he was buoyed by his time, and that carried over to what he deemed his favorite race. As in his 100 heat, he found himself racing once again against Palo Alto’s Eli Givens, and this time he was determined to stick with him.
“He’s one of the fastest, if not the fastest guy, in the field,” Friedman said of Givens, who turned in the top overall 200 time (22.14). “I felt like I gave him a run for the money.”
That, in turn, has Friedman excited about what could happen in the finals.
“I think it’s going to be a very close race,” he said. “I just want to go fast.”
The county’s other two finals qualifiers aren’t as concerned about fast as they are about going farther and higher.
Aptos’ Ethan Rasmussen qualified 10th in the discus with a throw of 144-1, marking the second straight year the junior has reached the finals. Jake Kenne, last year’s CCS champion, qualified first with a throw of 164-8.
Scotts Valley sophomore Reece Stratford, meanwhile, set a personal record in clearing 6-3 on his second attempt in the high jump. That placed him fifth behind veritable freaks of nature Darius Carbin of Mount Pleasant and Darius Thomas of Saint Francis-Mountain View, who easily cleared the bar on their first attempts.
Stratford nearly had Watsonville’s T.J. Trout-Lacy as company in the final. Trout-Lacy competed in four events Saturday and also set a PR in the high jump when he cleared 6-1 on his second attempt. But reminiscent of Oard’s last year, Trout-Lacy’s body wasn’t in favor of his marathon day.
He had to pull out of the triple jump, what he called his best event, after two attempts because of shin-splint pain. After an hour of icing, he turned in a high jump performance that even he was surprised about. But he was supposed to compete in long jump right after and it didn’t go as well. He capped the day with a strong anchor-leg run in the 4×400 relay with teammates Matthew Manriquez, Manuel Garcia and Jacob Cervantes, but the ’Catz got off to a slow start and their time of 3:28.53 missed qualifying by four places.
It’s time, Trout-Lacy said, to give his body a break.
“I’m kind of happy, but I’m going to miss it a lot,” he said, noting that he plans to attend Cabrillo College in the fall before transferring to Hartnell or Monterey Pacific College in the spring so he can run track.
“I’m going to miss the players and the coaches here and leaving school to race and just be me.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.