SAN JOSE—The shortest girl in the high jump competition was the one who stood tallest at the end.
Natalie Gutierrez, a 5-foot-3 Christopher High senior, hit a personal-record 5 feet, 5 inches to win the high jump in the Central Coast Section Track and Field Championships May 29 at San Jose City College.
Gutierrez and fellow Christopher senior Cody Oberlander qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation State Championships at Buchanan High in Clovis, which start today.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling,” Gutierrez said. “It was my goal to win it, but you never know if you’re going to be on or off. I’m just happy everything came together when I needed it the most.”
Oberlander went a career-best 6 feet, 7 inches to place fourth in the high jump in the boys’ competition. The top three in each event qualify for the state meet, but any athlete who hits the tough at-large qualifying standard also earns a berth to state.
And that’s exactly what Oberlander did.
In a weird twist, Oberlander actually finished as the runner-up in last year’s CCS Championships with a lower mark of 6-5.
“I might have finished lower this year with fourth place, but I’m happier with a PR,” Oberlander said. “You always want to hit a PR every time you’re in competition. To be able to hit a PR in the CCS Finals is all I could ever ask for. It’s a great feeling.”
Two other Christopher athletes—juniors Haley Romero and Isaac McCrimon—barely missed out on state berths. Romero and McCrimon, who have been dating for the past 2 and-a-half months, saw their solid seasons come to a close, as both notched fourth-place finishes.
McCrimon went 21 feet, 11 and-a-quarter inches, just three quarters of an inch from tying the PR he set three weeks ago at the league finals. Palma’s Justin Nobida-Lagrimas went 22 feet, 2 and-a-half inches to take the third and final state qualifying spot.
Romero’s jump of 17 feet, 5 inches wasn’t far behind her PR of 17 feet, 7-and-a-half inches she set last week in the CCS Semifinals. However, Romero would’ve had to go 17 feet, 9 inches to tie Branham’s Kelesi Budei for third.
Not surprisingly, both McCrimon and Romero expressed disappointment after the meet.
“It’s a tough one to take,” McCrimon said. “I felt I had a good chance to make it to state and to come this far and be off by a couple of inches, it’s pretty painful.”
Said Romero: “You work so hard and have it as a goal to make it to state, and when it doesn’t happen, of course there’s going to be some disappointment and sadness. But this was my best finish in the CCS Finals and I can use everything as a great learning experience to set me up for next year.”
Having come so close, both Christopher jumpers McCrimon and Romero said they’d dedicate a big chunk of their offseason trying to improve their marks in the long jump. They both had strong seasons and both expressed confidence that neither have yet to come close to hitting their ceiling.
Oberlander will be making his second straight trip to state; he went 6 feet, 5 inches last year to finish 18th. Oberlander, who has dealt with a nagging knee injury all season, overcame all of that with a jump of a lifetime.
In the moments leading up to the jump that earned him a berth to state, Oberlander was a picture of calm. It’s no wonder the 6-foot-4 Christopher senior was confident, as he cleared the high jump bar with room to spare.
When Gutierrez cleared 5-5, she looked to her family and friends in the crowd with equal parts giddiness and incredulity. Gutierrez has been trying to clear her previous PR of 5-4 since the beginning of the season. Time and again, however, Gutierrez came up short—until the critical moment when it counted the most.
“To be able to hit 5-5 here, I almost couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I’ve been working on getting a new PR for a while and it’s a great feeling to see all of my hard work pay off.”
The only other athlete from Gilroy or Christopher who made it to the CCS Finals—Gilroy senior Tim Van Horn—finished fifth the boys’ high jump with a mark of 6-3.
