by Alex Valdes
Gunn High track coach Hal Daner says his current team is one of his beat in recent years, and the Titans will do their best to prove him right this week. Gunn will send a large contingent of athletes to the Central Coast Section track and field championships Thursday at San Jose City College. Field events begin at 4 p.m., with running at 6:30 p.m.
For the Titans, the familiar names are back: Harder, Tompkins, Bower, Williams. There are even a few newcomers who will be trying to earn a top-three finish and capture berths in next week's State Meet in Norwalk.
One is Tami Tyler, who was the 12th and final qualifier for the 3,200-meter race at the CCS semifinals Saturday at San Jose City College. Daner said that Tyler, who ran a 12:04.7, tries to fit track practice in with her busy ice skating schedule. That's no problem, since Tyler is a nationally ranked skater.
Also, Joe Escobar sneaked into the finals by finishing eighth in the discus at the semis with a hurl of 150 feet, 3 inches. He hadn't even placed at the Top Eight meet a few weeks ago.
"He's (Escobar's) been working really hard. He's improved steadily," Daner said.
But, of course, the main stories revolve around several Titans who form one of the best groups of Gunn track athletes in recent memory.
Charlene Bower, a senior and a mainstay in the Titan program for years, finished second in both the shot put and discus at the semis. Her shot distance of 40-4 trailed leader Christine Etuale of Jefferson (41-8), and her discus throw (129-1) was runnerup to Carmel's Darlene Tulua (137-9).
Bower in just the latest in a string of fine shot and discus athletes trained by weight coach Bob Peters. Other state meet qualifiers of recent years include his daughter, Jennifer Peters, who broke the school record at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo this season with a throw of 168-11 1/2 -- then the No. 2 mark in America for Division II athletes.
Another current Gunn standout with a bright future is junior Jason Williams is looking to defend his CCS 800 title. He's the favorite, finishing first in the semis with a time of 1:57.18. Independence's Daniel Chen (1:58.30) and Bellarmine's Todd Dando (1:58.35) should present challenges, however.
Gunn distance runner Matt Tompkins battled early injuries, but he has regrouped and was first in the semis in the 1,600 at 4:23.64. Dando (4:24.01) had the second-fastest mark, and Tompkins' twin brother Mark had the fifth-best time at 4:27.20.
Other Gunn boys competing on Thursday include Jeremy Riddle in the 400, Stephen Bosshart in the 800 and Neal Harder in the 3,200. The Titans' 1,600-relay team is also taking part.
"In the mile relay, two weeks ago I thought we were just in the hunt," Daner said. "Now, the times have really dropped. We're ranked sixth in CCS."
"For a small school in Palo Alto in a very tough league (the Santa Clara Valley-De Anza Division), we did about as well as I expected," Daner added. "It would've been nice to sneak a few more places in, but . . ."
For Palo Alto High, one of the main concerns at the beginning of the week was nursing distance runner Janice Kim back to full strength. The senior was suffering from a bad cold that hampered her on Saturday, and she only had the seventh-best time (5:19.8) in the 1,600.
"She had a severe cold all week," Palo Alto coach Paul Jones said. "We were only trying to qualify her." Kim's top time in the event is 5:16.5.
Paly's Susie McKinley, also suffering a cold, failed to qualify in the 3,200.
The Feinberg sisters, Rachel and Sarah, qualified in four events between them. Sarah tied for the fourth-best time in the 100 on Saturday with a 12.74, and she was the eighth qualifier in the 200 with a 25.79.
Rachel had the eighth-best time in the 100 low hurdles (16.17) and the sixth-best mark in the 300 low hurdles (47.26).
Menlo-Atherton has a good chance chance of garnering a few titles on Thursday. Junior Sylvia Pieslak won the second heat of the 200 with a time of 25.34. Independence's Veronica Woods won heat 1 and had the fastest time, 25.26.
Pieslak will also challenge Woods in the 400. Pieslak's winning time of 56.62 in the second heat was a shade behind Woods' winning time of 56.60 in the other semi.
M-A senior Brent Vartan is going for glory in the 100, where his time of 11.09 was the second-fastest on Saturday, behind Los Gatos' Jason Isaac (11.05). Vartan also qualified in the 200.
The other M-A qualifier is Ashley Holt in the 1,600.
For Menlo School's girls, the 1,600 relay team qualified, as did Renee Emery in the long jump and Stephanie Midgley in the high jump.
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