21-23 March 2019: Christian/Crawford Dual, Mt. Carmel, Calvin Christian Small School Invite

There were three track meets this week, a rainy double dual meet with Christian and Crawford, the Mt. Carmel Invitational, and the Calvin Christian Small School invite held at Escondido high school. At the Mt. Carmel Invite, all eyes were on Alysah Hickey and her quest to break the San Diego Section record in the long jump. After the three preliminary jumps, Alysah had a commanding lead with a leap of 19 feet 9.25 inches, only 1/2 inch short of the distance that she won the state meet with last season.  In the finals, where they take the top jumpers from the two prelim flights, there was a 25-minute delay to allow one of the competitors to participate in the 4 x 100-meter relay. This delay was a bit excessive and forced the rest of the field to readjust. When the finals finally started, each of the top jumpers got three more attempts to try to better their marks from the prelims. However, Alysah's take-off marks were a bit to close, and she faulted on all three of her finals jumps. All three were over twenty feet with the last around 21 feet as measured by the judges. The Section record is 20 feet 7 inches set by former Olympian Gail Devers. There is a video of her winning jump as well as all three of her final jumps on IslanderTrack.com.  Alysah also ran the 100-meter dash where she finished fourth with a time of 12.09 in a loaded field that included some of the best Southern Section sprinters. Finally, in the high jump, she cleared 5 feet 5 inches for the win but elected to raise the bar to 5 feet 9 inches rather than going up in the normal 2-inch increments. Her legs were tired by this time, and she didn't clear that height. Her training partner, Ruthie Grant-Williams, placed third in the high jump with 5-3, and eleventh in the long jump with 16-4. Ruthie also ran 15.95 for the 100-meter hurdles. In the girl's 1600, Teresa Perez ran 5:10.21 in her first attempt at that distance this season. She's the school record holder with a time of 5:03.22.  Sofia Van-Arsdale placed sixth in the 800 with a time of 2:21.15 after being boxed in for most of the race. In the throws, Victoria Perez placed ninth in the discus with 109-2 and fourteenth in the shot with 33-5 against tough fields in both events. 

At the Small School Invite hosted by Calvin Christian and run at Escondido High school our new sprint/hurdle coach, Jordan Bucklew, took 12 athletes, who recorded 22 Personal Records. For the boys, Nick Dunn won both the 100 and 200-meter dashes while clocking nice times of 11.43 for the 100 and 23.13 for the 200. In the former event, Shane Alihan ran  12.23 but opted out of the 200 because of a hamstring tweak. Zane Delcore placed sixth in the frosh/soph 100 with a time of 12.54 , tenth in the frosh/soph 200 with 23.13, and eighth in the frosh/soph long jump with 17-6. Noah Wahamaki placed seventh in the frosh/soph 400-meter dash with 59.17 followed by Orian James who ran 61.59. Wahamaki also placed third in the frosh/soph 300 hurdles which he ran in 49.73. James also cleared 5-4 in the high jump for sixth place. The team of James, John Cook, Wahamaki, and Delcore placed third in the frosh/soph 4x100 meter relay with a time of 50.06.  Cook also competed in the high jump and long jump. Conor Youngblood ran a PR for the 1600 with a time of 5:29.05. Joe Whalen had a 33-4 heave in the shot put and an 80-3 throw in the discus.

 

For the girls, the best, most improved mark was by Sarah Burns who clocked a PR in the 300-meter hurdles of 50.54 for third place. This time is only a couple of seconds off qualifying for the CIF prelims. Sarah also placed third in the 400 with 63.52 and clocked 29.21 for the 200. Regina Czerewho also had a busy day with a fifth-place finish in the 400 with a time of 65.19. She also competed in the 200 (29.65), the triple jump (30-3), and the long jump. Samantha Lorr competed in three frosh/soph events; the 100.

-Coach Green