One week after guiding the Bruins to a school best third-place finish at CCS, field athletes Grace Wills, Amaya Fuller and Maia Garcia competed at the CIF State Meet at Buchanan High School in Clovis.
Wills and Fuller finished 23rd and 25th respectively in the shot put and discus. Garcia meanwhile tied for 13th in the high jump, one spot shy of qualifying for the final.
For the trio of Bruins, competing at the state meet was the culmination of a season that saw them dedicate themselves to their crafts.
“My dad got me into doing [discus] my freshman year and I ended up really liking it, even though cheer had been my priority up until this past school year,” noted Fuller, who will be a senior in the fall. “I decided this year I was getting good enough at discus that I should put more effort into it. The more effort I put into it, the better I was doing. Making it to state was such a big accomplishment. The previous three years I went just to watch, to see and observe, but this year to actually compete in it was really exciting.”
“All my hard work went into the state meet, so it was really awesome that I got to go there,” remarked Wills, who will be a walk on shot putter at University of Nevada Reno next year. “That was my goal. I have done track for three years. My first year I made it to CCS trials, the second year I made it to the CCS finals and my goal for senior year was to make it to state and I’m just really proud that I was able to make it that far.”
Having just completed her freshman year, Garcia will potentially have three more chances to improve upon her 13th place finish in the high jump.
“I was one of the only freshman who made it to state for high jump, so that was pretty cool,” said Garcia. “Since my dad is a coach I had gone to the state meet the past five years as a spectator. Watching in the past was so cool, and I was always like ‘oh my god, I wanna be like them.’ Then to make it my first year in high school, I was so surprised. Being on the infield at the state meet was so much cooler [than being just a spectator].”
Head Track Coach Julie L’Heureux expressed how proud she was of the trio for making it to state.
“All three of them have done junior olympics in the past, and all of them improved a lot over last summer leading into this year. Amaya worked really hard at her craft, and Maia with her dad as well. Grace, though, is a bit of the opposite, she seems to thrive by keeping busy with all her other activities so she doesn’t have time to think about throwing. Grace likes to high jump and hurdle and do anything to help the team, and she tends to throw better when we have her doing other events.”