By Pete Borello

Miller among the locals to miss the cut

She’ll be back. St. Francis High distance runner Tori Tyler didn’t get past the trials of last weekend’s CIF State Track & Field Championships, but there’s always next year. And two more years after that.

Tyler was one of only three freshmen to qualify for the trials, and her coaches wouldn’t be surprised if she made it to the finals as early as next year.

Tyler placed 16th in the girls 1,600-meter run at Friday’s trials, finishing in 5 minutes, 4.32 seconds. The top nine racers advanced to Saturday’s finals at Cerritos College in Norwalk.

Tyler qualified for the state meet by placing fourth at the Central Coast Section Championships May 24 at San Jose City College. She ran a 5:02.34.

Three other local athletes just missed making the state meet, placing fourth in CCS events that required top-three finishes to move on.

Allie Miller, Los Altos High’s lone representative at the CCS meet, finished fourth in both the girls 300 hurdles and high jump.

Miller came closest to qualifying in the high jump. None of the participants jumped higher than Miller, who cleared 5 feet, 4 inches, but three of them had fewer misses. The sophomore’s biggest miss came at 5 feet.

“We had her switch (take off) feet in practice (the week before the meet),” Los Altos coach Julia Widstrand said. “And at 5 feet, she took off the old way and hit the bar. Then she switched it and was fine. She did very well.”

Widstrand was just as impressed with Miller’s performance in the hurdles, which she ran in 46.30 seconds.

“It was a fabulous run,” the coach said. “She was stuck way out in lane eight and she dropped her best time by a second. She really ran a good race.”

St. Francis’ Chris Chisam and Kristen Mulenberg placed fourth in the boys discus and girls discus, respectively. Chisam threw the discus 166 feet, 7 inches; Mulenberg launched it 124.