For the first time in 25 years, the state high school Track & Field Championships will be in a city other than Sacramento or Norwalk.
The championships will be held at Veterans Memorial Stadium on the campus of Buchanan High in Clovis the next three years. The 2009 meet is scheduled June 5-6.
The site of the championships has varied over the years, but it's been held at either Cerritos College in Norwalk or Hughes Stadium at Sacramento City College since 1985. The '84 meet was at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Next spring will be the first time the meet has been held at a high school since Woodland High hosted it in 1973.
“Over the years you get used to having it at one place or the other,” Rancho Bernardo High track coach Don Jones said. “Cerritos is always so nice and so convenient for us. Sometimes changes bother some people. But I think change is good, unless you are going to a bad venue and I don't think this is the case.”
The venue in Clovis, near Fresno, features a Mondo Super X Track that was installed in 2007, colored relay zones and staggered starting lines around three turns. The scoreboard will display event results and real-time timing of running events. The stadium has more than 8,500 permanent seats. More seating will be added to raise capacity above 12,000.
Kevin Gemmell: (619) 718-5304; kevin.gemmell@uniontrib.com
