Healdsburg track and field champions Tim Murphy and Daniel
Erdman completed a dream season last weekend, as both ran with the
big dogs at the California State Track & Field
Championships.
The meet, held at Cerittos College in Norwalk on June 2-3, was a
showcase of amazing talent, speed and strength. As always, the real
winners were the athletes who overcame the odds to get there,
regardless of results. To illustrate the point, less than one
percent of all high school track and field athletes qualify for the
State meet each year.
Murphy made his second straight appearance at State, having been
part of the HHS record-setting 4×400 relay team in 2005. The
all-time HHS record holder in the 800 meters (1:55.12), Murphy won
league and NCS titles this season in the event, and took third
overall at the Meet of Champions on May 28 to advance to the State
competition.
Although he fell short of advancing to the final, the senior
speedster put the wraps on a great high school career on Friday,
finishing seventh in his heat in a time of 1:56.44.
Erdman, in his first State appearance competing in the shot put,
was seeded 12th and came into the meet with a PR of 56¹ 2² he set
at the SCL finals on May 20. The junior strongman had a brilliant
showing, starting Friday¹s action with a then personal best of 57¹
1². Erdman proved it was no fluke on his second throw, with a
Herculean toss of 57¹ 5.75².
³When I got out there I was pretty awestruck by all the great
athletes, but I thought that if I just did what I was capable of,
I¹d be fine,² he said. ³I knew coming in that I¹d probably have to
break the school record in order to get to the finals.²
Erdman did just that, shattering the 41-year-old HHS record of
56¹ 9² set by Dan Madden in 1965. The effort was also the
sixth-best all-time in the Redwood Empire. The toss bested three
higher-seeded athletes and landed him in the finals on Saturday,
where he finished in ninth place overall.
