MURRIETA — I owe an extra-large visit to the exercise room here in my hotel tomorrow morning before breakfast. A footlong sandwich from Subway, a couple of cookies and a small pizza for dinner isn't my way of doing things normally.

Of course, I did walk some six, seven miles today out at The SCGA Golf Course here in Murrieta. So did Stockdale's Pete Fernandez, who also took 70 strokes during his SoCal Regional Golf Championships round. That was just few enough to get him into a six-way playoff for the final four state-qualifier spots.

It took two holes, but one of the six dropped off on the first with a bogey and another on the second. Just like that, with two pars, Fernandez is one of the elite six individuals from SoCal to head to Tuesday's state tournament in Santa Maria. A big SHZ congratulations to Pete, who's the first Kern County state qualifier since Bryan Hogan, also of Stockdale, made it two years ago.

This is a pretty big deal — only 48 golfers in the entire state make it, and half of those make it because of their team (not to say there aren't some worthy individuals in there too).

Also a big deal is the state track and field championships, which are Friday and Saturday up (or down, to those of you back home in Bako) at Cerritos College in Norwalk. What, you think they pay for me to stay in a hotel if I wasn't working in the Southland again tomorrow?

Anyway, here's a list of some local stories to watch at the state track meet. Check out my story in Friday's Californian or here at bakersfield.com for some more details. Qualifying for all events except the 3,200 meters, which only has finals, are Friday. Finals are Saturday.

— Dayshan Ragans and Anna Jelmini. What, you thought I would start with the national-anthem singer? Ragans, from Foothill, and Jelmini, from Shafter, are hands-down the best chances for Kern County to bring home a state championship. In any sport, any time soon.
Shoot, they might even bring home two each. They each have the best mark in the state in the discus by a large, large margin, and also have the best mark in the shot put (though it's not as clear-cut for either in that event). Either could have won state last year (Ragans was second in the discus, Jelmini fourth in discus and seventh in shot), but this year they really are the favorites. This is the last step for a couple of marvelous seasons.

— Freshman phenoms. Friday morning's story in the Californian talks about this a little more, but there are two Kern County freshman with top-five seed marks in their events: Ridgeview's Johnny Carter in the boys triple jump and Stockdale's Alex Collatz in the girls discus.
Collatz probably won't win — thanks to Jelmini for that — but she's also qualified in the triple jump, which makes for a remarkable combination, especially for a freshman. I talked with Stockdale coach Dave Losinger earlier today, and he's already daring to dream of how good she can be. Oh, and yes, Alex Collatz is the daughter of Alan Collatz, the Cal State Bakersfield All-American and head track coach.
As for Carter, he's really come out of nowhere. He only started jumping last summer, was academically ineligible for the first part of this freshman season and then competed in mostly frosh/soph meets for the first part of the year. Now he's come out of nowhere and has — get this — the best seed mark heading into state. Can he win it? Sure. But I'd say a top five would be pretty darn good.

— Jumping jacks Alana Alexander of Centennial and Tyler Thompson of Shafter, who are both qualified in both the long jump and triple jump. Thompson gives Shafter, a town of about 12,000, has two elite athletes, in two events each, making waves at the state track meet. Pretty impressive.

— Check out Liberty's Amanda Klinchuch, a pole vaulter extraordinaire, who never gets press because the pole vault ends so late. She begins the meet with 2 p.m. qualifying on Friday. Then check out some great 1,600 relay teams to end the meet — Stockdale girls, Liberty and BHS boys.