Chabot's Zharia Dixon Wins NorCal Sprint On Home Turf

Chabot College sprinter Zharia Dixon’s focus was squarely on the State Championships after an impressive performance at the Northern California Community College Track and Field Championships on Friday at Chabot.
The Dublin High graduate won the women’s 100 meters and placed second in the 200 to advance in two events to the California Community College Championships on May 20-21 at Mt. San Antonio College. She is one of eight individuals and one relay team from Chabot that qualified Friday for that elite meet.
In the 100, Dixon won with a time of 12.21 seconds. Diablo Valley’s Ariane Nelson was second (12.26).
“I just was like ‘It’s my race, I have to execute my own race and not worry about anybody around me,’” Dixon said. “I’ve always needed extra work on my start, but now I know what I need to execute and just keep practicing.”
In the 200, Dixon placed second in 25.22 despite having to run near the outside of the track in Lane 8. The top placers in sprint races usually are in lanes 3-6. Nelson, in lane 6, placed first in 25.11
Dixon said that she thinks she has run in lane 8 “once, as a kid.”
“I’m pretty proud of myself for just pushing through and just taking the cards I was dealt with and making lemonade out of it all,” she said.
“At this point, championship season is all about competing and trying to get titles, and she did that,” said Chabot head coach Kyle Robinson about Dixon. “She did a great job.”
Jacob Lawrence placed second in the men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 14:51.63. Lawrence, an Amador Valley graduate, bolted into the lead in the first 50 meters and was either first or second throughout the rest of the race. He led with 600 meters remaining, but Hartnell’s Isaac Gensel made a big move and eventually won in 14:45.95. Four runners broke 15 minutes in the race.
“For Jacob, I think that’s a good setup,” said Robinson, referring to the state championships. “We went out real hot … I think there’s a legitimate chance for a lot of those guys to really come in the top two.”
Daniel Abdala of Mt. SAC leads the state with a time of 14:01.93, and teammate Jesus Alvarado is second in 14:19.43. The next three are within 1.15 seconds of each other, including Lawrence, who has the fifth-fastest time this season (14:38.51). Gensel is third in 14:37.36.
In the first men’s track event of the day, Chabot’s 400 relay team placed second in a season-best 41.29, which ranks fourth in the state. The team of Marcel Anderson, Zion Mayo, Obinna Elendu and Shamil Youngblood. Youngblood, in an impressive anchor leg, held off San Joaquin Delta’s anchor runner by .01. Merritt won the race in 40.96.
Chabot’s Nico Melendres placed third in the men’s 800 on Friday (1:53.90). Only eight athletes in the state have a better time than that, including Melendres, who is ranked second (1:51.49). American River’s Cristian Martinez is the state leader with a time of 1:51.45. Diablo Valley’s Iyan Godwin, who ranks fourth, won the race Friday in 1:53.08.
“I think the 800 for Nico is a lot of motivation for him,” said Robinson about Friday’s race. “We talked quite a bit about race strategy and I think we kind of were focusing a little bit too much on Cristian Martinez.” Martinez finished second in 1:53.18.
Chabot’s Andie Aymond finished tied for third in the women’s pole vault and will advance to the state championships. The James Logan graduate opened by soaring over 3.15 meters (10 feet, four inches) on her first attempt before missing her three attempts at 3.30 meters (10-10).
Other Chabot third-place finishes were achieved by Mayo in both the men’s 100 (a personal-record 10.62) and 200 (21.58). His sister Masina Mayo was also third in the women’s 100 (12.32).
“My start was a little off today, but … you know, I can’t be too upset about a PR,” said Zion Mayo after the 100. “Just trying to consistently drop the times, get the form down, get the execution down. Still got some things to work on, so I’m excited for state.”
In the women’s 800, Chabot’s Ariana Chavez continued her outstanding postseason run by placing fourth in a huge personal record of 2:20.56. The San Leandro High graduate placed herself in the top four with 400 meters remaining, moved into third with 300 to go and eventually nabbed the final state qualifying spot in the event. Entering this season, Chavez’s personal record in the event was 2:25, which she ran as a high school sophomore. She produced a time of 2:22.08 at the Northern California Trials on May 6.
“I feel super excited. … The state (A) time is what I’ve been working for all season, so I’m just really happy that I came in fourth” said Chavez, referring to the state automatic qualifying time of 2:20.80. “I was just trying to stay with the front pack.”
Chabot’s Angie Paglieri placed seventh in the women’s 3,000 steeplechase (12:58.21), but she has an A standard time of 12:11.92 achieved earlier this season. One of the competitors who finished ahead of her does not have an A standard time this season, so Paglieri advances to the state championships.
Other Chabot athletes who competed in the Northern California championships on Friday included Skyelar Connelly and Joel Castillo in the men’s pole vault (Connelly tied for fifth with 13 feet, 9 ¼ inches, Castillo was eighth with 13-3 ½), Giovanna Duley in the women’s 100 and 200 (fifth in 12.60 and fourth in 25.61 respectively), the men’s 1,600 relay team (sixth, 3:20.49), Adonis Prince in the men’s 400 (eighth, 50.63), Devin Walker and Youngblood in the men’s 100 (eighth in 10.96 and ninth in 10.99 respectively), Chris Michael Velasquez in the men’s hammer throw (ninth, 148-1) and Cole Pineda in the men’s 1,500 (10th in 4:13.10).
Chabot’s women’s team finished eighth overall with a score of 45.50; the men’s team was 10th overall with 43.50 points. Hartnell won the women’s team title with 135 points and American River was the men’s champion (102).