Track: City League Finals 11 May 2018

Last week's track adventure was the League Finals, which serves the double purpose of determining league champions for each event and advancing athletes to the CIF Prelims to be held this Saturday at Mt. Carmel High School. There are three ways to advance. All league Champions move on to the CIF finals. If an athlete equals or betters a CIF standard, they'll advance. The third way is to have a mark among the top 27 athletes in our division (D-2) on the day of the finals (last Friday).  All the other leagues in San Diego had their finals last Friday as well. The meet location was at Madison High School in windy, blustery conditions, so most of the marks were not up to usual standards. Three athletes won two or more events. Teresa Perez pulled-off an impressive triple by winning the 1600 meter run in 5:08.50. She came back to win the 800 meter run with a time of 2:20.52. Her last victory came in the 3200 meter run with a time of 11:17.68. This feat is even more impressive when you consider that each of her times was faster than the CIF standard for that event on a windy day that slowed everyone down. Madden Hundley PR'd in the 1600 with a second place finish of 5:14.18 to advance to the CIF Prelims as well.  Abigail Hundley was fifth with 5:28.86 and may scratch in to the Prelims. Sofia Van Arsdale clocked 2:21.86 to advance in the 800 while placing second to Teresa. Madden and Abigail placed third and fourth in the 3200 with times of 11:45.28 and 11:56.35. Both advanced to the CIF prelims. Jessica Ehret placed fifth with a time of 12:14.00.  Victoria Perez (no relation to Teresa) won both her specialties, the shot put and the discus throw. Her discus effort of 105 feet 4 inches was way off the school record she set last week of 119-2, but it was seven feet better than the second place throw. Her shot put mark of  34 feet 7 inches was a Personal Record and over a foot and a half over the old School Record. Our other multiple event champion was Alysah Hickey who won both the High Jump with a leap of 5 feet 6 inches and the Long Jump with a bound of 18 feet 6 inches. Ruthie Grant-Williams also advanced in both the high jump and long jump with efforts of 5-4 in the high jump and 16-7 in the long jump. As with Teresa Perez, all four marks from the two girls bested the CIF standard.  There was a slight upset in several races. Normally we win the girls 4x100, the 100 dash, and the 100 hurdles. However, Christian and Madison have a few pretty good runners and won both the 4x100, the 100 dash, and the 100 hurdles. The times in all of these events were slow because of the wind yet still under the CIF standards. Alysah advanced to the CIF prelims in the 100 with a time of 12.59 while placing second to Madison's Aysha Shaeed who ran 12.51. Shaeed and Hickey are the top two sprinters in the county. Ruthie placed second in the 100 hurdles to Christian's Simone Jarnes with a time of 16.13, and we placed second in the 4x100 with a time of 49.30 to Christian's 49.28. Ruthie was the lead leg followed by Madison Shanks, Abigail Whittmore, then Alysah.  In the girls' 4x400, Annie Holland, Abigail Hundley, Madden Hundley, and Van Arsdale placed second to Christian with a time of 4:27.59. Van Arsdale placed 2nd in the 300 hurdles with a time of 52.38.  Holland placed fifth in the 400 in 65.44 and 11th in the 200 with 29.65.  Because of their performances throughout the season, Teresa was named City League Female Track Athlete of the Year, and Alysah was named City League Female Field Athlete of the year by unanimous vote of all the City League head coaches.

  

Our only boys' double individual winner was Luke Klingenberg who won the 1600 in 4:35.08 and the 3200 in 10:05.90. Joining him at the CIF prelims in the 3200 will be Brad Busby who clocked 10:11.01. Danny Mineo ran 10:23. 45 and there's a chance he'll scratch in. Chris Russell placed third in the 1600 with a time of 5:09.69. Ian Hurlburt cruised to an easy win in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:58.22. In the last race of the day, Ian anchored another exciting 4x400 relay. Max Fuller, Chris, and Luke ran the first three legs in that order, all around 54 seconds. When Ian got the baton, the Madison Anchor had about one stride on him. Ian uncorked an anchor leg that we timed at 49.9 to win going away.  We didn't win the boys' 4x100, but we ran fast enough to advance to the Prelims. Shane Alihan, Ian, Max, and Nicholas Dunn placed 2nd behind Madison with a time of 44.35.  Nicholas placed 4th in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.77 against a strong headwind, as well as 5th in the 200 with a time of 23.82. Max picked-up the third-place medal in the 400 with a time of 54.84. Our only other CIF advancer was Liam Casey who high jumped 5 feet 8 inches. Liam also long jumped 17-1 behind Kobuk Van Houten who jumped 17-9.   Haden Dunlap PR'd in the Shot Put with a toss of 39-0. However, he had to settle for 2nd place behind Clairemont's Mihn Hong who had a 5 foot PR to win the event with 41-1. In that event Nate Kim placed 9th and Joe Whalen 11th.  Jack Weisbrod threw 84-4 in the discus for 13th with Kim and Andrew Needham in 16th and 17th place.