SACRAMENTO -- It's been a tough couple weeks for Rebecca Hammar.
The Buhach Colony senior strained her groin during last week's Division I championships. This week she missed two days of school trying to recover from an illness.
The Stanford-bound track star spent the bulk of her afternoon Thursday sleeping in a Suburban. Hammar woke up in time to win the shot put event at the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Meet.
On Friday, she came back and punched her ticket to next week's CIF State Meet in a second event with a second-place finish in the discus with a throw of 143 feet, 1 inch.
"I'm happy to be moving on," Hammar said. "I didn't care if I won or not, but I wanted to (record a personal best throw). I haven't beat my PR my whole senior year and it's getting frustrating."
Hammar has one more meet to do it. Her career best discus throw was 150-5 in last year's CIF State Championship state meet at Buchanan High in Clovis.
"It's been a combination of trying to drive through my throws and hitting the right positions," she said. "I haven't had the right combination this year. It's been one or the other."
At state, Hammar will be joined by two other area athletes in Golden Valley's Teresa Mallory and Buhach Colony's Matt Moreno.
Mallory will be just as busy as Hammar after qualifying in both the 800- and 1600-meter runs.
The Golden Valley senior made an astonishing comeback in the 800, chasing down Oak Ridge's Samantha Ralstin and Granite Bay's Christine Zavesky in the final 50 meters to earn the victory.
Mallory crossed the finish line in 2 minutes, 15.48 seconds, edging Ralstin's time of 2:15.53.
"I was settling for third," Mallory said. "I just kept running to the end. When I crossed the finish line I started crying."
It'll be Mallory's first time going to state after a couple close calls. She clinched her state berth earlier in the day with a second-place finish in the 1600 with time of 5:01.83.
"It's the first time I'm going to state," she said. "It feels really good. It means a lot to me. It's surprising."
Moreno missed an opportunity to advance to state when he finished fifth in the 100 with a time of 10.87 seconds.
He made up for it with his second-place finish in the 200. Moreno crossed the line in 21.76 seconds to finish just ahead of one of the top football prospects in the section in Grant's Shaq Thompson, who posted a 21.77.
"I'm very happy," Moreno said. "It's the first time I'm going to state and I'm only a sophomore. I was a little worried because of what I did in the 100, but that made me more determined."
The top three finishers in each event at the Masters advanced to state. There were some local athletes who came up just short.
Merced senior Misha Strong finished fourth in the 400 with a time of 57.31. Golden Valley's Steven Pust was fifth in the pole vault with a height of 14 feet, 2 inches. Atwater senior Andrew Morgan finished seventh in the 400 with a time of 49.73 seconds.
While the season ends for most of the area athletes, Hammar, Mallory and Moreno can focus on next week.
"Hopefully I can stay healthy," Hammar said "It would be nice to get a couple good practices in each event leading up to state instead of one day of practice like this week."
Shawn Jensen is a Sun-Star sports writer. He can be reached at 385-2476 or by e-mailing sjensen@mercedsun-star.com
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