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JEWEL OF THE PIRATES! Butler wins 1,500-meter state title!
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Sunday, May 21, 2006
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BAKERSFIELD - Jewel Butler (pictured above, far right) picked a great day to run her best-ever 1,500-meter race.
With defending state champion and hometown favorite Brittany Grimes of Bakersfield in front of her, Butler used a strong push in the final two laps to capture the state title with a winning time of 4 minutes, 42.6 seconds on Saturday at the California State Championships at Bakersfield College.
"She stayed within herself, she stepped back and didn't panic when (Grimes) got out in front of her," OCC head coach John Knox said. "In the final 1,000 meters, she let (Grimes) come back to the pack, then blew right past her. It was not only a great race, it was a well-executed race for Jewel."
Butler's time shattered her Southern California Regional finals time of 4:50.53 as well as her Orange Empire Conference finals time of 4:46.0.
The OCC men's and women's team each finished in the top 10 overall, with the women finishing ninth with 24 points and the men 10th with 32 points.
"A top-10 finish for both teams was very nice to see," Knox said. "Usually, there's one or two dominant teams, but this year, the points were spread out among all the teams. I thought it was a very good meet for us."
In the 5,000, Gabriela Santana finished third with a time of 18:54.34 and 11th in the 1,500 (5:21.43), while teammate Araceli Huerta earned fifth-place times in both the 10,000 (40:18.0) and the 3,000 steeplechase (12:25.34).
"Araceli was an alternate for the 10,000 so to see her step up and earn a fifth-place finish was a tremendous accomplishment," Knox said.
On the men's side, four top-10 marks were earned by the javelin foursome of Scott Burbach (second, 187 feet, 11 inches), Chris Burbach (pictured above, third, 184-9), Lance Gonzales (seventh, 171-0) and Cameron Clavin (10th, 159-9).
Gonzales finished fifth in the decathlon with 6,211 points and impressed Knox with a strong display of stamina.
"At one point, Lance just finished his 1,500 and he was immediately called to compete in the high jump at 6-6 because the lower jumps had already been completed," Knox said. "It was 94 degrees outside and with no time to rest, he stepped up and cleared 6-6 and nearly cleared 6-8, but he barely grazed the bar on his way down. It was a great performance."
Gonzales' 6-6 in the high jump was good enough for fifth place.
Southern California champion Cameron Clavin finished third in the discus with a mark of 159-6.
In the 800, Drew Woods placed sixth with a time of 1:54.41, while teammate Ignacio Perez finished seventh in the long jump (22-3 3/4).
"All in all, I was very happy with how the season went," Knox said. "As a group goes, I felt that everyone contributed to the success of this team and everyone showed improvement. They can be proud of what they accomplished this year."
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