Track and Field Notebook: Local stars compete at Stanislaus County Championship Meet
Track and field athletes from across the area gathered at the Stanislaus County Championships Friday, March 18, at Riverbank High to compete against one another in one of the biggest events of the year.
Field events such as the discus, shot put, long jump, high jump and triple jump started at 2 p.m. and track events from hurdles to 1,600 and 3,200 meters also were contested.
Top three finishers in each event received a medal, while the top 10 qualified for the County Clash on April 1.
Each medal and medal ribbon was orange, black and white to recognize Scott Durham’s contributions to Stanislaus County distance and track and field.
The colors were picked because Durham, who has become one of the faces of Stanislaus County track and field, wears orange shirts to events. He says he does so because there are no schools in the area whose colors include orange and it makes him recognizable.
Durham takes photos, presents the runner of the week with a shirt and attends meets all over Stanislaus County, taking notes on athletes and posting them, along with his photos, on his website StanCo Distance.
“I try to hit the different leagues and get to know the different kids and coaches,” Durham said. “I started doing runners of the week in cross country, so I’d go out and get the T-shirts to the kids and that really allowed me to introduce myself to the teams and to the coaches. So it wasn’t just, ‘Hey, there’s that weird dude in orange taking pictures of us.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, there’s Scott.’ So I think that really helped introduce myself to the community and each individual school.”
There were many notable performances from the meet and full results can be found at the athletic.net website.
Turlock schools won team championships: Pitman won the boys team title with a score of 123.5. Oakdale finished with a score of 95 and Enochs was third with 92.5.
Turlock’s girls took the team championship, scoring 161 points. Oakdale and Modesto finished in second and third with 118.5 and 80.5 team points, respectively.
Modesto senior wins longest events of the day: Modesto High senior Melissa Barajas took first in the women’s varsity 1,600 and 3,200 meter races. Barajas posted a season record of 5 minutes, 28 seconds in the 1,600 meters and 11:50.09 in the 3,200 meters.
Barajas will attend Chico State on a track and cross country scholarship. While she says she loves cross country, she also will run the 5K and 10K in track.
Oakdale’s Kassidy Fmura and Pitman’s Charlotte Laska finished in second and third place, respectively, in both distance events.
In addition to Barajas, 14 other runners posted personal or season records in the 1,600 meters, making it one of the most successful events of the day.
More records in boys 1,600 meters: Led by Pitman’s Damian Garcia and Efren Sanchez and Oakdale’s Caleb Cavanaugh, who were the event’s top three finishers, a total of 19 runners posted season or personal records in the boys 1,600 meters.
Among those posting records were runners from Davis, Modesto, Hughson, Enochs, Central Catholic, Big Valley Christian, Riverbank and Central Valley.
Local track and field star honored: Runners took a break during the meet to honor former Riverbank High and professional runner German Fernandez, who was given the Track & Field Legends of Stanislaus County award.
Fernandez is one of the most decorated runners from Stanislaus County. While in high school, he broke many county records and still holds ones for fastest 1,600 and 3,200 meters. His senior year, he was named the Gatorade National Boys Track and Field Athlete of the Year and Gatorade California Runner of the Year.
Fernandez went on to run at Oklahoma State University, where he received numerous awards including Big 12 Indoor Performer of the Year and Big 12 Indoor Freshman of the Year and earned an NCAA outdoor championship in the 1,500 meters in 2009. He helped lead Oklahoma State to a 2010 Cross Country National Championship and was a multiple-time All American before turning pro.
Battle in boys high jump: Gregori senior Jake McBay and Turlock sophomore Max McFarlane battled for the county championship in the boys high jump. Both worked their way up to 6 feet and finished tied for first. McBay posted a season record.
The event also ended with a four-way tie for fourth place.
Turlock dominates pole vault: Ian Strode and Luke Appleby took the top two spots on the boys side while Kylie Viray, Allyson Petersen and Brooke Schumacher swept the top three spots on the girls side.
Fourth place finisher C’ierra Ferreira (Enochs) set a new personal record.
This story was originally published March 25, 2022 at 12:27 PM.
