Stokke, Buckley win

NORWALK— It might have been easier to convince Sanjaya Malakar to go bald than it was to get Allison Stokke to crack a smile after Friday night’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet.

UC-Berkeley-bound Stokke, who handily qualified for the CIF state finals with a pole vault clearance of 13 feet, 3 1/2 inches, was stone-faced after her performance because of a mistake CIF officials made when measuring two of her vaults.

“We had the bar at 13-8 and I made it, and then 13-10, and I made it, but then they told me the measurements were wrong, so they took those heights back, and I did 13-3 1/2 , which is very disappointing,” said Stokke, a senior at Newport Harbor.

“That would tie the national best right now, and they can’t give that to me if they don’t know for sure. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t right, but there’s no way to tell. I could have done 13-8, and that still would have been a personal record.”

Stokke, who is No. 2 in the state behind Tori Anthony of Castilleja, vaulted a personal record 13-7 this season.

CIF officials lowered the standards that the bar sits on during the girls’ vaults, because aside from Stokke, none of the other girls vault as high as the boys, according to CIF state meet director Hal Harkness.

“The two bottom pegs were six inches apart, and the two top ones were a foot apart. When Allison was by herself and she elected the height she wanted to vault, they only raised it six inches instead the correct amount up to the foot,” Harkness said. “It got six inches off and no one realized it until we officially measured the height. It’s really unfortunate. But other than the fact that she’s disappointed, and rightfully disappointed because she thought she cleared a height that she didn’t, she didn’t lose a height that she really cleared.”

Stokke’s teammate Jessica Robson also qualified for state finals in the high jump, finishing third with a mark of 5-4.

Conversely, you couldn’t find another set of girls happier to be missing their senior prom than Shelby Buckley, Hilary May, and Allison Damon of Corona del Mar. All three advanced to the state finals in the 1,600 meters, along with Sarah Cummings, who qualified in the 3,200 meters. The state finals, which take place next weekend in Sacramento, fall on the same Saturday as CdM’s prom.

Buckley took first place in the 1,600 meters, zooming past everyone on the last straight-away for a time of 4:46.8.

“She’s got a deadly kick,” May said. “Deadly. And you would never know it because she runs with us in practice every day, and ties with us, and then all of a sudden she gets in these races, and you’re like ‘Whoa!’”

Damon finished sixth with 4:51.75 and May was seventh with 4:54.95.

May sustained an ugly scratch on her right leg from a spike, and by the time she reached the exit point at the opposite end of the track, blood was running down her leg, but she shrugged it off.

CdM senior Tiffany Liu had a mark of 37-7 1/4 in the triple jump and didn’t advance to finals. She finished eighth.

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or [email protected].