2014: Ogundeji leads Section State Qualifiers

The San  Diego Section has 16 state top 10 performances, compared with 18 two weeks ago and 11 last week as the 96th meet championships loom this weekend at Clovis’ Buchanan High.

There are many scoring opportunities for the local group after a strong finish to the San Diego Section season Saturday at Mt. Carmel, but the field at Buchanan is as loaded as ever. Some  potential point-scorers:

–Madison’s Doton Ogundeji has to be favored in the shot put and discus, with state-leading efforts of 65 feet, 5 1/2 inches, and 194-5.

Ogundeji was the only San Diego Section athlete to qualify for Saturday’s finals in two events last year.

But the pressure will be on. Matt Katnik of Bellflower St. John Bosco trails Ogundeji by an inch in the shot put and Malik McMorris of Santa Ana Mater Dei is close in the discus at 192.

–Brandon Lucas of Poway is in three events, 100 (:10.63), 200 (:21.18), and 4×100 relay (:41.45). He would have qualified in the 400 but dropped that event in the San Diego Section finals.

Lucas’ best individual event is the 200, with a fifth-best time of :21.18.  Should he qualify in all three, the Saturday night 200 final would be Lucas’ sixth race in two days.

Rumors abounded at the San Diego finals that Poway would make a state meet personnel change, Ryan Morgan replacing one of the foursome that included Will James, Tyjon Lindsey, Lance Mudd, and Lucas in the league and section meets.

–Suzie Acolatse of Mission Hills has come out of the weeds and inserted herself into the conversation  with an :11.59 100 and :23.97 200, both times representing significant improvements in the last month.

–Melissa Mongiovi of West Hills ran :54.70 as sophomore last year and finished fifth in the 400.  Her best this season is :55.61  and Mongiovi  seems to have too much left at the end of her races, but she is a technically sound and fast enough  to hang with the favorites.

–Adrian Mangoba of Vista (who?)  was laboring in 1:57.74 obscurity 30 days before the section final, but took the lead Saturday early in the second lap and no one could run him down.

Mangoba held on to win in 1:52.33, beating back the challenge of Bannon Greer of Valley Center, who ran 1:52.96.

–Hannah Labrie-Smith, Cathedral’s section record-holding 300 hurdler, was among the state leaders since April with a :42.24, but she fell to No. 8 when Southern Section hurdlers blew out some low :42s and mid :41s.

–Stephen Fahy of La Costa Canyon hopes to make a run at Bakersfield Stockdale’s Blake Haney in the 3200.

Fahy’s 8:53.5 is third best going in and Haney, undefeated in 23 races this year,  has not run close to his state-leading 8:46.80 since early April. But Haney tripled in  the Central Section finals, running 1:52.86 in the 800, 4:13.07 in the 1600, and 9:18.1 in the 3200.

San Diegans in State Top 10

() Last week’s rank or not ranked.

San Diego vs. California

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