It wasn’t with glass slippers, but with running shoes, that led the Menlo girls’ track team to a Cinderella season.
With just five runners on their varsity roster the Lady Knights won an unprecedented Central Coast Section team championship, the first in program history. And while each of the two seniors and three juniors made essential contributions toward the historic achievement, the belle of the ball was most certainly middle-distance extraordinaire Charlotte Tomkinson.
When head coach Jorge Chen approached Tomkinson about adding a third race to her workload at the CCS meet, he already knew the answer. It was a tall order, considering it was the girls’ 400 meters, run just 20 minutes prior to her specialty 800. So, when Tomkinson responded with a resounding “yes,” Chen knew it meant the team had a legitimate chance to contend for team gold.
“Charlotte being Charlotte, she obviously decided to go ahead and do the double, potentially risking her making state in the 800, which is her marquee event,” Chen said. “But Charlotte, day in and day out, she’s always about the team.”
The decision didn’t affect her performance in the 800 one iota. Not only did she claim gold in the 800 with a time of 2 minutes, 13.69 seconds, she also earned bronze in the 400 in 57.35 seconds. She ultimately took home a medal in every color, also taking silver with the girls’ 4x400 relay team.
This alone made Tomkinson a clear-cut choice as the Daily Journal Girls’ Track Athlete of the Year. Yet she added to her medal count in her return to the CIF State Championships, where she earned the silver medal in the 800.
“It is an atmosphere like no other,” Tomkinson said. “It’s a huge stadium with thousands of people. It’s just a very electric feeling. It was super exciting to be back there again and not be a rookie.”
The junior standout was certainly deserving of the fanfare.
After starting the season with benchmark back-to-back times in the 800 — at the New Balance Nationals in New York City she blazed a trail at 2:13.03, then followed that up at the Dublin Distance Fiesta with a time of 2:10.61 — she held the top time in the state of California for most of the season.
“I definitely knew after my first race where I set the state leading time,” Tomkinson said. “At that point I was pleasantly surprised. I knew I wanted to end up at state and up on the podium.”
Not only did she reach the state podium, she did so in style. The previous season, she had settled for the sixth and final podium spot. This time around, she fronted the two-lap race along with bronze-medalist Rayna Stanziano (Concord) and gold-medalist Samantha Wallenstrom (Marin Catholic-Kentfield).
Recommended for you
“I felt like I had a target on my back at state because everyone knew who I was,” Tomkinson said, “and that was new for me because last year I just got into state and barely snuck onto the podium.”
It was a bittersweet finale for Tomkinson. Taking second place was the best finish by a Menlo girls’ runner since 2005 when Libby Jenke took gold in the 800 with a time of 2:10.39. Tomkinson’s time some 14 years later was almost a second better at 2:09,41, and set a new personal record for the junior.
And with Tomkinson, Stanziano and Wallenstrom sparring through the final lap, it made for one of the most exciting finishes of the day May 25 in Clovis.
“It was insane, it was crazy, it was definitely off the charts,” Chen said. “It was probably one of the best races, if not the best race, of the whole state meet. There’s no doubt about it.”
Heading into the bell lap, Stanziano was out front. But as they hit the penultimate turn, Tomkinson made her move, exploding out of the curve to overtake the senior. On the final turn, though, Wallenstrom rode her kick into the straightaway to get past Tomkinson and win it in 2:08.78.
“For Charlotte to come so close, she was probably about 30 meters from a state championship, for her to come so close to that, it was kind of like a punch in the gut for her,” Chen said. “But she was definitely not disappointed at all.”
Tomkinson expressed the same mixed emotions.
“Everyone knew I was going for gold, so it was disappointing to fall short of that,” she said. “But I ran a good race and I was able to PR. So, you can’t ask for more than that.”
With Wallenstrom being a sophomore, the stage is set for a possible rematch in 2020. There is also the possibility of Menlo repeating at the CCS finals, though Tomkinson, for one, wasn’t taking anything for granted when the Knights had the historic crown in their sights this season.
“I’m definitely really excited for senior year,” Tomkinson said. “I feel it’s kind of coming to be a culmination of everything we’ve done for the last three years … but for CCS we knew this was going to be our shot to do it. We knew if we didn’t go for it, it might not come around again. And it turned out perfectly. We could not have had a better day.”
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.