Golden Valley High junior will compete against the top athletes in the state at CIF Meet

For the past two months, Golden Valley High junior Benito Lara had the word “State” written on a dry erase board in his garage.

He would see it every time he worked out, a constant reminder of his goal to make it to the CIF State Track & Field Championship at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

When Lara came home from the Sac-Joaquin Section Masters Championship at Davis High School this past week he got to erase the word from the board.

With a personal best throw of 170 feet and 6 inches, Lara finished second in the discus, punching his ticket to the state meet.

“It was a huge accomplishment,” Lara said.

How big?

Lara is the only high school athlete advancing to the state meet from Merced County.

The Cougars junior will get a chance to compete against the best athletes in the state.

“It’s very difficult to make it out of our section, it’s the second largest section in the state,” said Golden Valley boys track coach John Wooding. “Kids in our county work hard all season long. For Benito to make it to state as a junior is a huge accomplishment.”

Lara’s previous best throw was 158-7, which he uncorked at the Arcadia Invitational on April 5.

Lara has been approaching the postseason with the mindset that each meet could be his final one of the season if he doesn’t perform.

“After the CCC championship, I knew any of the meets could be my last meet,” Lara said. “I wanted to keep my season going.”

Lara said he felt a big throw coming leading into Masters after getting more one-on-one time with his throwing coaches at the end of the season as the number of athletes still competing dwindle in the postseason.

“Preparing for Masters, there’s probably five throwers working out as opposed to 45 throwers during the season,” Wooding said. “Benito took advantage of the extra attention and he threw he best throw by 12 feet.”

Lara’s throw of 170-6 was just one inch shy of breaking the Golden Valley discus record of 170-7 set by Josh Murdock in 1998.

Lara has another shot to break the record, which has stood for 24 years, this weekend at the state meet.

Lara is heading into the state meet with plenty of confidence with the way he’s been throwing in recent weeks.

“I had been working on my technique, breaking down everything, especially my finishing,” Lara said. “Everything started clicking and that’s led to some big throws.”

Lara said when he heard the distance on his throw at Masters he was elated.

“I was just so happy,” he said. “I got a PR by 12 feet at Masters. I was in second place so I knew I was going to state.”

“It means a lot,” Lara added. “I have been working hard this season. It had been a long time since I got a PR. I knew I was going to PR at Masters by the way I had been throwing in practice during the week.”