San Jose – A strong first half of competition at Saturday’s CCS
Track and Field Semifinals helped Gilroy thrower Bobby Best advance
to the CCS Finals in discus.
San Jose – A strong first half of competition at Saturday’s CCS Track and Field Semifinals helped Gilroy thrower Bobby Best advance to the CCS Finals in discus.
Best opened the day with a second-place throw of 159-05 feet, a personal best, which qualified him for the CCS final meet this Friday at Los Gatos High School. First-place went to Rolando Gomez of Pioneer, whose best throw reached 165-00.
“(In discus), he got four more feet than he regularly does,” said assistant track coach Fortune Gonzales. “He got second, which is a high achievement for him. … Hopefully, he’ll make it to the state meet, barring catastrophe.”
In shot put, his second event of the day, Best was not in top form and finished 11th with a throw of 45-03.75.
Rich Macy, one of GHS’ throwing coaches, said Best usually easily clears that distance. However, because Macy recently had a hip replaced, he hasn’t been at practice to work with Best for the past two weeks.
“Something must have happened with his form,” Macy said.
Senior high jumper Frank Valadez just missed making a return appearance at the finals. He cleared the 6-02.00 mark, but didn’t make enough of his attempts to break into the top eight that advanced. He finished tied for ninth place with two other jumpers. Andre Roper of Oak Grove had the top mark of 6-06.00.
Senior Sierra Barroza (16th, discus, 106-00), and juniors Arnulfo Velasquez (16th, 3200m, 9:58.26) and Christian Cania (21st, triple jump, 40-05) also competed for GHS but did not advance.
