CLOVIS — Although his season came to an abrupt end Friday, Marina High junior Matt Dispenza could not be too disappointed after barely missing a second chance to advance to Saturday's CIF state track and field championships at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Competing in the high jump in Friday's preliminaries, Dispenza cleared 6 feet, 5 inches on his first attempt, but he could not clear the bar in three tries at 6-7 (his personal best) and he was not among the 12 finalists. Dispenza had jumped 6-7 two weeks prior at the Southern Section finals.
"If one more person would've missed at 6-7 I would've had a chance to make it in a jump-off since I didn't have any misses at the starting height," said Dispenza, who transferred to Marina this year after finishing sixth in the Washington state finals last spring as a sophomore at Kentlake High near Seattle. "I felt really good after my first jump, but after I missed the first one at 6-7 it got in my head a little bit. On the first two attempts my approach was too slow and on the last one it was too fast and I fell onto the mat."