Prep Girls Track and Field: Broncos’ Patterson qualifies for state in four events; RB wins team title

Jackie Patterson celebrated her 17th birthday Friday. One day later and the Rancho Bernardo High junior has already accomplished more than many her age do in a full year.

For the second straight season, Patterson qualified for the state track and field meet in four events at Saturday’s CIF San Diego Section championships at Mt. Carmel High School.

The sprinter took second in the 100-meter and 200, was part of the Broncos’ first-place 400-relay team and the third-place finishing 1600-relay team. The top three in each event at the section finals earn a trip to state, which is slated to start Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.

“It’s really satisfying to get to state in all of the events,” said Patterson, who ran the 100 in a personal-best 11.75 seconds, which is .04 off the school record. “It’s nice too because colleges will look at me and want me to go to their school. My times were good and I am just really happy with the way I ran.”

Patterson had a personal-best in the 200, too, crossing the finish line in 24.20. She ran the anchor on the 400-relay team that finished in 47.37. The 1,600-relay team finished in 3:55.69, just behind second-place Poway (3:54.05).

Patterson’s performance was just one of many great ones on the day for Rancho Bernardo, who won the Division I girls team title for the second straight season.

Nia Akins repeated as the 800 champion, breaking her own school record of 2:11.11 by coming in at 2:09.07. The junior was challenged by Carlsbad’s Kiley McCarthy in the final 200 meters, but was able to pull away in the last 175.

“I definitely felt her coming up,” Akins said. “I think it just pushed me a lot more and I had to work a lot harder than I usually would. But I knew it was going to be a close race. I just trusted by training and did what my coaches told me to do.”

Rancho Bernardo senior Bryanna Fuller pulled of the grueling double, qualifying for the state meet in both the 1,600 and the 3,200. She finished second in the 1,600 (5:03.98) and third in the 3,200 (11:01.62).

“It was so rewarding to do both,” said Fuller, who had some extra motivation after her cross country season was cut short due to an illness. “My coach and I were stressing all week about doing both events, but I didn’t want to take the easy way out and do just one. It is my senior year and I wanted to do both.”

Poway sophomore pole vaulter Kayla Meyer qualified for state with a third-place finish. She cleared 10-feet, 10-inches to advance. Broncos’ freshman high jumper Tori Palacki cleared 5-3 and is headed to state after a third-place finish.