A number of Riverside County's best athletes moved onto Saturday's California State Finals at Cerritos College.  No state titles here in 2008, but we did have several runner-up finishes that left a number of us proud as could be!  Vista Murrieta's incredible trio of jumpers was cut down to two but senior Ryan Swafford and junior Nick Ross represented our county's top program by both taking 2nd place in the triple jump and high jump, respectively.  Ross closed out one of the best prep seasons ever by jumping up over 6'11" again!  He'll come back for his senior campaign but he is one of four underclassmen that finished in the top five in that event.  Moving over to the sand pit, Swafford was back for his second year in a row.  Leading going until the final round with a 48'3.75 mark, a freshman from up north bounded just out over 49 feet.  Knowing that he had to out beyond 49'1" and with the crowd clapping, he gave it all he had on his last effort but his 48'5" mark was just shy.  Either way, he leaves us as one of the best triple jumpers in county history. 

Meanwhile, closing our one of the finest months in the history of Riverside County distance running, Corona's Raul Arcos took 2nd place in the 1600 meters.  He pulled in another personal best of 4:09.65, which is the #3 mark in Riverside County history!   Unfortunatly, most did not notice he was 2nd place the entire last 400 meters because he was over NINE seconds behind the winner, German Fernandez, who blazed to a 4:00.29!  Going into the postseason, Raul's seasonal best was 4:18.13 and every week, he improved.  He and Fernandez were the only two to pr in that race, so we could not ask for more. 

Perris' Ericka Nowell will NOT be off the radar in 2009 as she definately made the entire state aware of her talent this last weekend.  In the 300 Hurdles, Nowell was 2nd place up until the last stride where she was outleaned.  But, being her first time at this level - she did a great job!  But, going into this season, nobody in the state had her finishing 3rd place, let alone, making the state meet!  She went 41.89 and will go for the county record in 2009!

JW North senior Tommy Curry put together an incredible stretch drive here and finished an impressive 4th place in the 100 meters and came back to post an 8th place effort in the 200 meters.  He also anchored his 400 relay team to an 8th place finish.  In that same 200, Santiago junior Rodney Storrs was unable to run down the pack as, although the same time of 5th and 6th place, he finished 7th.  If anything, this will only make him hungrier for the 2009 season to begin... 

Rancho Verde's boys 1600 relay ran phenomenal in going 3:15.29 and a solid 6th place effort.  In one of the fastest 1600 relay races in state history, they definately held up well.  The foursome of Jesse Ooten, Joel Casillas, Bakari Fant and Paul Robertson have a lot to be proud of.   On their girls' side, they came through with an 8th place finish in the 4x400 relay while closing out a pretty tough weekend for this group.  Keep in mind, RV's girls had the daunting task of replacing last year's state champion 4x100 squad and all four return for, what should be, a very motivated campaign in 2009.

As a whole, it was a humbling weekend for most Riverside County athletes.  But, putting things in perspective, our best did go up against the very strongest in the nation and one hiccup here or there is magnified on a grander scale.  Congrats to everybody for giving us an incredible season!