Fry secures 2nd straight state berth

CLOVIS — Katie Fry didn’t think winning was in the cards.

Her personal-best 2-minute, 12-second 800-meter time would have gotten her into the NCAA Division II finals, but she knew it wouldn’t be enough against Jordan Hasay.

The Mission Prep senior has been the Valley’s — and California’s — distance-running kingpin for most of her career and delivered as expected in her final Valley Grand Masters meet.

Hasay, who was 10th at the U.S. Olympic trials in the 1500 meters in 2008, darted past Fry in the first turn of the 800 and cruised to a meet-record 2:09.64 at Buchanan High’s Veterans Memorial Stadium, Saturday.

Fry had the second-best time in the Central Section coming in and despite ceding her stagger to Hasay so early, she was finished 10 meters ahead of every other competitor. The Exeter sophomore finished in 2:13.51 to punch her ticket to the California State Meet for the second consecutive year.

She is the only Orange Belt track and field athlete to move on to state (June 5-6 at Buchanan).

“That is so cool, I’m so excited,” Fry said of returning to state. “Half my success for that is to Jordan because she pushed me so hard. It was so fun to run with her.”

Fry was in the middle of the pack after a slower-than-usual start but reeled in her larger-school competition toward the end of the first lap. 

She passed Madera South’s Alisha Brown to move into second place at the end of the first lap and tried to stay with Hasay in hopes of a personal-record time.

“I got a bad start,” Fry said. “I just didn’t get out of my lane fast enough, but she made me want to chase her so I went after her. I was (saying) ‘Stay on her and I know she’ll pull me to a good time.’”

Hasay went on to win her natural race, the 3200, where she is a three-time state champion, in 10:30.04. She crossed the finish line, winning by 23 seconds, to a standing ovation.

Fry said she will probably focus more on speed work and limit her mileage to prepare herself for the state’s best half-milers. 

She was disqualified for cutting in early in the prelims of last year’s meet.

Overall, the Monarchs, a school with around 1,000 students, qualified five athletes and two relay teams for the Valley meet.

“I know, it’s really cool,” Fry said. “Exeter’s small but we have really good teams. Everybody has big hearts.”

Exeter sent both 400- and 1600-meter girls’ relay teams but each struggled. 

The 4-by-100 team was hampered by baton exchanges and not having top sprinter Melissa Leyva (who qualified for the 100- and 200-meter dashes but couldn’t compete until the 1600-meter relay due to a social conflict) and finished last in 53.54 seconds. 

The 1600-meter team had bigger handoff gaffe, dropping the baton, leading to them bringing up the rear in the fast heat. 

Exeter’s Christian Gonzales also finished 18th (2:05.14) in the boys’ 800.

The only Portervillian at the Valley meet was Monache senior hurdler Faiza Khalid. 

Unlike Fry, Khalid had no aspirations of advancing. In fact, she didn’t feel any pressure going into the meet.

Until she saw who she was up against, anyway.

“I wasn’t that nervous but then I saw the little pamphlet that had all the times on it. I had the slowest time, so then that made me a little more nervous,” Khalid said.

Khalid, who was in lane one of the slower of the two 100-meter hurdle heats, managed to beat two runners. She finished 15th in a season-best 16.63 seconds. 

“I wasn’t that good on my steps,” she said. “It was really scary (running at Valley) because I knew I wasn’t that fast. I didn’t do that well but I’m glad I came. It was really fun.”

Khalid plans to attend the University of California-Santa Cruz and hasn’t decided whether she’ll walk onto the track and field team yet.

Shafter’s Anna Jelmini, who holds the national record in the discus, set the stadium record with a 182-feet, 8-inch throw. She also won the shot put with a heave of 51’9.5 feet.

Buchanan won the boys’ title with Clovis, sparked by sprinter Jenna Prandini’s four first-places, won the girls’ crown.

The state prelims start at 3 p.m., June 5 with the finals beginning at 4:30 p.m., June 6, at Veterans Memorial Stadium.