The boys 800 meter trials went off around 8 p.m. on May 30 at the California Interscholastic Federation championships at Veterans Stadium in Clovis. It was not 100 degrees at that moment according to Piedmont High School sophomore Sebastien Swain. It was more like 96.
“It was a bit rough out there,” he said. “During the race it wasn’t that bad. Warming up sucked. Once you’re kind of moving in the race, you get a bit of a breeze.”
The top three in each of three heats plus the next three best times would advance to the finals on May 31. A year ago, it took one minute, 53.72 to make the finals. Swain, with a personal-best of 1:54.55 two weeks ago at the North Coast Section Bayshore championships, was going to have to drop some time to make it to Saturday.
The race started and Swain utilized his strategy to get to the front. Cameron Mobley of 12 Bridges-Lincoln was in the lead in 55.0. Swain was second in 55.3.
“I wanted to put myself into a position where if things did happened I could qualify,” Swain said. “I wanted to go out in this race. It’s really easy to go too easy in the first 400 and get stuck in the back of the race. My goal was to get out, get into position and use the guys around me to pull to a PR.”
The reality of the state championships is that you are racing the absolute best in California.
“I got out pretty well,” Swain said. “I was kind of around second-fourth for a little bit. Kind of like 300 meters to go I was solidly in the top three which meant I put myself in position. That changed.”
California has many of the best track athletes in the county. Runners who have plenty left for the kick. Swain got his PR of 1:53.15 but finished eighth out of 10 in the heat and did not move on.
Mobley finished fifth in 1:51.81 – the final wild card time to get into the finals.
“Running a 1:51 to get in is kind of ridiculous,” Swain said. “I thiink the best part of this meet for me, especially in my own race, I was able to see what I need to do to take that next step and be one of the most competitive guys in the race next year. Know what the state meet is like and know how its run is one of the big things for me coming out of this meet.”
Swain stuck around to watch the finals the next night. The pace was a little slower and Wyland Obando of Wilson-Long Beach won in 1:51.24.
“The atmosphere was great,” Swain said. “Theres so much energy in the stadium with the people. I wanted to see what the finals were like. See what the top guys in the state go out and do some crazy things.”
Swain ran with a condition where the muscles in his legs hindered the blood circulation to his feet. He said he’ll have surgery this summer and may miss a chunk of the cross country season – he has made the state championships in that sport in both his freshman and sophomore seasons.
Swain was the only Piedmont athlete at the CIF championships.
The meet drew national attention because of the performance of A.B. Hernandez of Jurupa Valley, a transgender girl who drew the ire of some protesters. One person reportedly was arrested and at least one person reportedly yelled an insult at Hernandez while she was competing.
The CIF changed the rules of participation twice in the days before the meet, with no explanation of whether it was a vote of the Executive Committee or not that made the change and when such a vote might have taken place. Further, state law and CIF policy allows transgender athletes to compete in high school sports as their chosen gender.
The last-minute CIF changes came after President Trump made threats to state education funding on May 27 if Hernandez was allowed to compete. The first change was announced May 27, allowing cisgendered girls who did not qualify out of the Southern Section but would have if it wasn’t for Hernandez, to enter the state meet. There was no mention of how the CIF had determined that Hernandez was transgender, nor how it would determine who is cisgendered. There was also no mention of separate but equal competitions with Hernandez’s scores separated out of the results and extra medals awarded.
KCRA Channel 3 in Sacramento reported that day that an anonymous source in the governor’s office said part of the deal would be a separate division for transgender competitors.
The next day, the CIF announced a “clarification” that indicated separate medals would be awarded. Hernandez ended up winning the triple jump and high jump and finishing second in the long jump. The second place finishers in the first two events (including both girls who tied for second in the high jump) were awarded first place medals along with Hernandez. The third finisher in the long jump was awarded a second place medal. The finishers below those were each “moved up” as well.
The CIF is not funded by taxpayer money and neither the governor nor the legislature has any power over it.