Hoping to make a statement

Mike Sciacca

The city of Huntington Beach will be well represented this weekend at

the CIF state track and field championships in Sacramento.

Five local prep athletes finished among the top five at last

week’s CIF Southern section masters meet at Cerritos College in

Norwalk to automatically qualify. The state meet begins Friday at

Hughes Stadium.

Qualifying from Marina High was Tony Guadagnini, Lyndly Tamura

from Huntington Beach and Joe Gatel, Tori Pena and Kelly Maclean from

Edison.

The locals dominated the girls’ pole vault, which was won by Pena

at 13-feet-1. Maclean, her teammate, finished in third place at 11-9

and Tamura was fourth, also at 11-9.

Pena will be making her second straight appearance at the state

meet. Last year, she finished in seventh place.

Maclean also qualified for last year’s state meet, but was unable

to compete due to illness.

“She is so excited to make it this far. It is her senior year,”

Edison girls’ coach Chris Shield said of Maclean. “Our girls are

vaulting extremely well and having fun.”

Tamura, the school record holder in the pole vault at Huntington,

also will be making her second appearance at the state meet.

“She had a good year last year and is doing even better this

year,” Huntington coach Gary Stenlund said. “My expectations for her

were high and she’s exceeded them. I’m so proud of her, regardless of

what happens at state.”

Gatel finished second in the boys’ 1600 meters, finishing the race

in 4:11.07.

Guadagnini, meanwhile, went 1:53.89, to finish third in the boys’

800 meters.

“My main goals this year was to qualify for state, and I reached

another goal by finishing among the top three at masters,” said

Guadagnini, who won the division I race the week prior. “I still have

two goals that I haven’t reached yet. One is to finish in the top

three at state, and the other is to hit 1:52.

“It’s an honor to represent Marina and the city of Huntington

Beach at the state meet. It should be exciting.”

State preliminary competition begins Friday and the meet concludes

with finals competition on Saturday.