The article below originally appeared in the San Mateo Patch and is being reprinted with permission.
Elite community college athletes representing 60 schools from a swath of the state stretching from Kern County to near the Oregon border will descend upon College of San Mateo later this week for arguably one of the most significant collections of events in Northern California community college sports history.
CSM will simultaneously host Northern California championship and state qualifying events in baseball, softball and men’s and women’s track and field.
CSM will also play host to an Olympic trials qualifying event.
“Busiest weekend ever,” CSM spokesman Fred Baer said in an email of this weekend’s events.
CSM’s baseball and softball teams, both No. 2 seeds in Northern California, will host four-team Super Regional playoffs.
The baseball Super Regional opens with CSM (29-10) playing Diablo Valley College (24-15) on Friday at 11 a.m. Ohlone (28-10) will play Consumnes River (22-15) later in the day.
The tournament continues with an elimination game at Canada College on Saturday at 10 a.m..
Competition at CSM will feature a winners bracket game at 11 a.m., followed by an elimination game at 3 p.m.
The championship game will be played on Sunday at 11 a.m. (with an extra game to follow, should the undefeated team lose at 11).
In the softball Super Regional CSM (38-4) plays Sequoias of Visalia (30-9) at 2 p.m. Sierra College (37-5) of Rocklin faces Ohlone (29-11) at 4 p.m.
The tournament continues on Saturday with the title game set for Sunday at noon and an extra game to follow if needed.
All games are at CSM.
Track and Field competition begins on Friday with field events starting at 10 a.m. and track events starting at 1 p.m.
CSM will also host a USATF Pacific Association Olympic trials qualifying competition for top American throwers following the conclusion of the community college championship meet on Friday at about 5:30 p.m.
Suzy Powell of Modesto, who last week lost her American record in the shot put to reigning Olympic champion Stephanie Brown Trafton, will make her first attempt to get it back at CSM’s international throwing facility, which has long been a favorite of world-ranked athletes.
Brown Trafton got her previous personal best of 217-2 feet at CSM in 2009, a year after posting one of the biggest upsets of the Beijing Olympics. The gold medalist hit 222-3 in Maui last week to break Powell’s record of 222-0 set in 2007.
Also:
CSM has never won a state title in baseball or softball. The only CSM team to win a state title was in golf, more than 50 years ago. … Former world shot put champion John Godina arranged with CSM and USATF’s Pacific Association to conduct an Olympic Trials qualifying competition at CSM. Baer is PA USATF women’s track and field chair. … The state meet will return to CSM in 2013.
