Saratoga News

Sports

Dolbec reaches state finals in high jump

By Dick Sparrer

The flags of the United States and California waved majestically over the Capitol Park grounds at the State Capitol Building last weekend. But it wasn't just Old Glory and the Bear Flag flying high in Sacramento on Saturday--so was Saratoga High School high jumper Kiersten Dolbec.

The Saratoga sophomore, coming off a championship effort at the Central Coast Section finals the week before, tied for eighth in the high jump at the state finals held Saturday at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento.

Dolbec, who topped 5-6 to win her CCS title, cleared 5-5 in the state prelims on Friday to earn her place in the finals, then jumped 5-3 on Saturday to match the eighth-place height of Moria Robinson of Mt. Whitney High School. Robinson ended up eighth based on fewer misses.

Dolbec won the battle of the underclassmen at the section meet. Her 5-6 was good for a win with Prospect sophomore Kristin Rimbach second at 5-4. Aptos junior Janelle Coulter also topped 5-4, but finished third. All three advanced to state with senior Maureen Ajoku fourth at 5-2, just missing the cut.

Rimbach, like Dolbec, cleared 5-5 to tie for fifth in the prelims, but because she took more jumps to do it, she didn't advance to the finals. Rimbach ended up 12th in the preliminaries.

Saratoga's girls 4x400 relay team also competed in the state meet after finishing third in the CCS finals in 3:56.61. The Falcon foursome of juniors Rachel Sabes and Nicole Sabes, sophomore Claire Marsh and freshman Sarah Guy ran 4:04.98 in the prelims to finish 21st.

The combined efforts of Dolbec and the relay team helped the Falcons break the top 10 in the team standings at CCS. Mt. Pleasant won the team title with 96 points and the Falcons tied for seventh with St. Ignatius and Monta Vista, all three teams with 16 points--two behind sixth-place Soquel. Valley Christian (second at 40), Milpitas (third at 34), Aptos (fourth at 32) and Archbishop Mitty (fifth at 24) also finished in the top 10.

Westmont's Christine Ristow also placed at CCS but failed to qualify for state. The sophomore was fifth in the 300-meter hurdles in 46.17, and only the top three in each event advanced to the state prelims.

Area girls that competed in the section preliminaries but didn't move into the finals included Saratoga's Kelly Lamble (1,600), N. Sabes (800), Katie Nast (3,200) and Ashley Cole (long jump); and Prospect's Hannah Gilbert (400), Mariah Rogers (100, 200) and Jennifer Jasper (discus, shot put).

In the boys CCS meet, seniors Sameer Thadani of Lynbrook and Brad Jacobs each placed, but not high enough to move on to state.

Thadani raced to a sixth in the 200 meters in 22.83, and Jacobs was 12th in the 3,200-meter run in 9:39.94.

Local athletes competing in the CCS prelims but failing to advance to the finals included Westmont's Marko Vatavuk (110 high hurdles, 300 intermediate hurdles), Kevin Blakley (high jump, long jump, triple jump), Sean Hutchison (shot put) and Gregory Talley (high jump); Lynbrook's Eric Surprenant (110 high hurdles, 300 intermediate hurdles) and Thadani (100); and Saratoga's Alan Menezes (1,600), Alex Lagemann (100) and Gibran Meza (triple jump).