The Bakersfield College men’s 400 relay team overcame a slightly diseased handoff from the third leg to the anchor on Saturday at the BC relays and received first place.
Third-leg runner C.J Jones’ handoff to anchor Attrail Snipes had Jones anxious for a nanosecond, but Jones knew that Snipes would make up for the mistake. “It was a bit shaky,” said Jones, “but I knew we would pull it off, so when Attrail pulled it off I wasn’t surprised.”
Snipes held a picture in his head of losing the same race the week before and did not want to display a redundant episode of loss.
“Last week we ran at COC (College of Canyons), and we lost that relay,” said Snipes. “I did the long jump for the first time and hurt my back so I did not run as well. But we said we wouldn’t lose this week, especially at home.”
The team of Ty Lee, Brandon Bowen, Jones and Snipes ran the race in that order and finished it with a time of 42.52 seconds.
Snipes also finished first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.95 seconds and placed second in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.93 seconds. According to men’s coach Dave Frickle, Snipes was the state champion in Washington in the 100, 200 and 400.
“He has had a good day, and he’s done real well in his events,” said Frickle.
Lee also placed first in the long jump with a distance of 22 feet and 6.5 inches as did Kameesha Bowens for the women with a length of 17 feet and 3 inches. Bowen also placed first in the triple jump with 38 feet and 2.5 inches.
Annakia Jackson placed first in the women’s high jump with a height of four feet and five inches. According to Frickle, this is Jackson’s first year running track and she, along with teammate Tinesha Mitchell, will be competing in the heptathalon this coming week at Cerritos. The heptathalon consists of seven events and they are the 100 meter hurdles, the 200 meter, the 800 meter, the long jump, the high jump, the shotput and the javelin. Jackson ran the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday and placed second with a time of 15.88 seconds. “I was chasing her the whole time,” said Jackson, “that was the only girl I saw. I came out of the blocks slow.”
Jackson was speaking of Shakina Phillips of Los Angeles Southwest, who ran a time of 15.78 seconds. Both women did better in the finals opposed to their trial times.
Breaking a pole vault meet record with her jump of 10 feet 7 inches was Melissa Noonchester of Bakersfield College. She attempted to jump 11 feet 1 inch but tapped the bar off three times. The old record was an inch lower than her new record.
Bakersfield College will host the Western State Conference Championships at the end of April.