By now Anika Lindley realizes her evolution into a hurdler was inevitable. Her mother competed in hurdles, her grandfather, too.
But that doesn’t mean the Santa Cruz High junior didn’t put up a good fight. She spent one spring playing soccer and another season and a quarter racing the sprints. At the end of March, Lindley finally capitulated to her fate and entered her first 300-meter hurdles race during a Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League dual meet, which she won. In her six races since, she’s never finished worse than second.
“When I did my first 300,” Lindley said, “I knew this was something I can look forward to and grow in.”
That Lindley has room to grow may be a scary thought for her competitors, especially since last week she established herself as one of the best 300 hurdlers in the Central Coast Section. She easily won her heat at the section trials, qualifying her — alongside 20 other county athletes — for Friday’s CCS Track and Field Championships at Gilroy High. A top-three finish there would carry her to next week’s state championships in Clovis.
It’s a steep trajectory from Ground Zero to state, but it’s not impossible. For inspiration, the Cardinals racer need only look to the hurdler on her left when she takes her lane Friday. Soquel’s Chloe Kimes is now a seasoned 300 hurdler, but last year she reached the CIF State Track and Field Championships as an alternate in just her sixth career hurdles race.
Kimes also won her trials heat Saturday in the second-fastest time of the day behind Delaney Peranich of St. Ignatius. Still, the one-time dark horse holds the fastest time in the CCS — 44.74 seconds — which the Knights junior set in winning the Top 8 Classic in April.
“It’s kind of my main event this year,” Kimes said.
That doesn’t necessarily give her an edge, though.
“There’s a lot more pressure because I do really want to do well,” Kimes said. “But it’s a fun race because I can always work on something.”
Kimes and Lindley could have a rivalry for the ages in the SCCAL next season, but this year they barely crossed paths. The only time they raced head-to-head was at the league championships. Kimes won the SCCAL title, but Lindley set a personal record of 45.71 in taking second. That ties her for the third-fastest time in the section this season with Leland’s Chae Un Kim, who will fill Lane 2 Friday.
Last year, when Lindley ran the 100 and 200, she never even made it out of the SCCAL trials.
To be frank, the girls appear have little in common aside from their breakout rookie seasons. Kimes is a petite brunette who relies on her speed between the hurdles, admitting that clearing them “is not my specialty.” And no one in Kimes’ family competed in track. Lindley, a 5-foot-9 blonde, meanwhile, has inherited strong hurdle technique and said the obstacles are a welcome distraction from an otherwise lung-searing three-quarter-track sprint.
However, coaches for both girls describe them as “tough.” And, both are chasing similar goals they hold perhaps even above extending their season an extra week — school records.
Kimes is hot on the trail of Christan Goetzl’s record time of 44.71, which she set at the 2014 CCS finals. Lindley, meanwhile, wants to knock down the 25-year-old Santa Cruz standard set by Melanie Cafe. Cafe ran the race in a hand-timed 45 seconds, which equates to about 45.23 under mechanical timing.
Cardinals hurdles coach Don Roberts coached Cafe and said she and Lindley also don’t look anything alike physically.
“The similarity was the desire, that they really want to be a hurdler,” he said.
Lindley has that desire, she has the heritage and she has the coordination to excel at the event. She also has a role model in Kimes, whom Lindley is hoping also qualifies for state.
That Lindley would be a hurdler was inevitable, and it’s something she accepts a little more every day.
“I don’t believe in myself as much as people around me,” she said. “But I’m kind of realizing that I can do this.”
Contact Julie Jag at 831-706-3257.
