Track & Field: McCord, Bender to compete at state

Sage Hill School senior CJ McCord has already shown he can perform on the big stage.

McCord placed second in the boys’ high jump at last year’s CIF State Track and Field Championships, clearing a school-record 6 feet, 10 1/4 inches. He’ll be looking for a similar performance this weekend as he makes the repeat trip to Buchanan High in Clovis for the state meet.

Newport Harbor senior Hope Bender is the other local competing, in the girls’ 300 hurdles.

The preliminaries for the CIF State Track and Field Championships begin Friday at 3 p.m., with qualifying for field events. The boys’ high jump is scheduled for 4 p.m. Qualifying for track events starts at 5 p.m., with the three heats for the girls’ 300 hurdles scheduled for 8:05-8:15 p.m.

All event finals in both track and field are on Saturday.

McCord, bound for Yale, repeated as the CIF Southern Section Division 4 champion two weeks ago by clearing 6-9. He was unable to match that mark last week at the CIF Southern Section Masters Meet, but still easily cleared 6-7 on his first try to advance back to state.

At state, top competitors for McCord include Michael Burke of Lemoore, Darius Thomas of Mountain View St. Francis and Isaiah Holmes of San Jose Oakmont. All three of them have cleared 7 feet this season. McCord’s clearance of 6-9 ties him for fifth on the state leaderboard.

Bender, who first started running the 300 hurdles in late April, proved a fast learner. She set the Orange County record in the event at the CIF Southern Section divisional finals at Cerritos College, finishing second in Division 2 in 42.51 seconds. She then finished third in the event at the Masters Meet, at 43.04, to punch her ticket to her first state meet.

Bender is bound for UC Santa Barbara. Her time of 42.51 places her seventh on the state leaderboard. Jurnee Woodward of Vacaville has the state’s top mark, a 41.10 at the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section meet on May 28.

The top six placers in each finals event at the CIF State Track and Field Championships earn medals.