FOLSOM — Ripon’s Starla Skiles qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation State Track and Field Championships in two events after winning the girls 300-meter hurdles and finishing second in the 100 hurdles Saturday in the Sac-Joaquin Section Track and Field Championships at Folsom High School’s Prairie City Stadium.
All top-three finishers will compete in the two-day state championships at Clovis High School beginning Friday.
Skiles’ winning 300 time was 43.85 seconds, and her second-place 100-hurdle time was 14.08. Skiles was joined by Kaiya Kroutil, Olivia Ellis and Clara Schoolland on the 4x400 relay and took nearly two seconds off their qualifying time and a half a second off of their scorching divisional championship time to finish sixth in 3 minutes, 59.50 seconds — a new school record.
Skiles qualified for state last year in both hurdle races as well.
“I could have had a better start in the 100 hurdles,” Skiles said. “And I can improve there, even though it was a PR and puts me in a good place for seeding.
“My 300 was a little sloppy and need to get it together. Having a bad race and placing high makes me feel better, because there is room to improve and time to cut off.”
East Union’s Jackson Fay earned his trip to Clovis with a second-place finish in the 100 (10.85). He finished sixth (22.47) in the 200.
“This feels great,” Fay said after the 100. “With all the hard work over the summer this feels really great.”
Ripon’s Marcus Madoski finished third (6 feet, 6 inches) in the high jump, and he did so in thrilling fashion. He had two misses at 6-6, and a third would drop him to fourth place. He pulled it off on his elimination jump.
“This feels great,” Madoski said. “This is my first time going to the state meet.
“I was a little under the weather today and my knee was hurting a bit, but I have a week to recover and hopefully I will go out there at state and do better.”
Manteca’s Marcus Brown finished sixth (17.87) in the 110 hurdles and seventh (40.04) in the 300 hurdles. In the 110 hurdles, a collision in the middle of the track spilled over into Brown in lane one and took Brown out, but he did get up and finish the race.
“That was a bad race,” Brown said of the 110 hurdles. “I got caught by someone else.
“My ankle kind of hurt in the 300’s and I really didn’t do my best.”
