7 locals advance to national JOs

By Pete Borello, own Crier Staff Writer

photo courtesy of John Nickolls Los Altos resident Eric Hersey, left, has qualified for next week’s National Junior Olympic Championships in Indianapolis.

It’s taco time for Eric Hersey. Thanks to his first-place performance in the 400-meter hurdles at the Region 14 Junior Olympics, Hersey is teeming with tortillas.

“I told him I’d buy him a taco for every meter he won by,” said Julia Widstrand, Hersey’s coach on the Fox Athletics track and field team. “I owe him 15 tacos.”

After his run for the border, Hersey will make a run at a medal in next week’s National Junior Olympic Championships. He is one of seven local athletes to qualify for the meet, set for Tuesday through July 31 in Indianapolis. The top three finishers in each regional event advance.

Hersey has qualified in two events, having also won the 110 hurdles at the regional held July 9 and 10 at Granada High in Livermore. Competing in the Intermediate Boys Division (ages 15-16), the Los Altos High junior ran the 110 in 14.66 seconds, which “was good, but not his best time,” Widstrand said. Hersey’s dominating effort in the 400 was his best, but his coach believes he’s capable of doing even better than 57.16 seconds.

“I want to see him a second faster,” said Widstrand, also the head track coach at Los Altos High. “He will have competition (next week) and he’ll have to work hard. I think he’ll medal for sure; I would like to see him in the top three.”

Hersey’s teammate at Los Altos, Alec Nickolls, must be considered a medal contender as well after winning the Intermediate Boys 1,500 and 3,000 runs at the regional. The junior, a member of the Palo Alto Lightning track club, ran the 1,500 in 4:13.11, the fifth-best time in the nation for his division.

“He kicked butt and took names in the 1,500,” Lightning coach Willie Young said.

The unassuming Nickolls credited his new spikes, Young’s strategy and the fast field for his personal-best time in the race.

“I was pretty far behind the first lap and a half - I was second to last,” he said. “Then they slowed down and I led the last lap and a half and won by four seconds. I think they were scared when the time was called out after the first lap, because it was so fast, and they slowed down. That’s what I was counting on.”

Nickolls said he didn’t go all-out in the 3,000 - he wanted to save himself for the next day’s 1,500 - yet still won with a time of 9:31.

Joining Nickolls in Indianapolis will be the Lightning’s Kieran Gallagher, who won the Bantam Girls (9-10) 1,500 at the regional and also qualified in the 800 with a second-place finish. The Los Altos resident ran the 1,500 in a personal-record 5:25.23, the fifth-best time nationally for her division.

“She was stalking the girl (in the lead) and with 500 meters left, she went on by her,” Young said of Gallagher, 9. “The other girl challenged her and got ahead, then I saw Kieran’s determination and it was like, ‘No, not today,’ and she went right by that child. It was impressive.”

Also impressive was Sarah Nolet’s regional effort in the javelin. The Los Altos junior and Fox team member won the Intermediate Girls Division with a career-best toss of 112 feet, five inches.

“She only threw 93 on her first try and then I gave her some advice: ‘You’re going to get beat, so you better lay something out,’” Widstrand said. “Then she went out there and launched a perfect throw.”

Widstrand expects more of the same in Indianapolis.

“I think she’ll do really well,” she said. “My goal for her is to medal and throw 120.”

Widstrand conceded that it will be more difficult for her two oldest qualifiers, 2005 Los Altos High graduates Daphne Owen and Jeff Clark, to medal in the Young Women and Young Men divisions (17-18).

At the regional, Owen won the steeple chase - a 2,000-meter race that included 18 barriers, such as hurdles and water - in a personal-best 8:29 and was third in the 800 run with a 2:36. Widstrand said Owen would need to “tweak a few things” in the steeple chase and run a much faster 800 to be competitive in Indianapolis.

Clark placed third in the long jump at the regional with a 21-8.

“It’s not his best event, strangely enough, and it’s going to be tough,” Widstrand said of Clark, who also did the high jump and triple jump in Livermore. “My goal for him is 23 feet; we’ll have to push him hard.”

Fox’s Erin Robinson also qualified for the national meet - she won the Midget Girls Division (11-12) 1,500 in 5 minutes flat at the regional - but won’t be going. The Los Altos Hills resident, whom Widstrand said, “ran a fabulous race,” had already committed to play in a tournament with her club soccer team.