26-27 April: Escondido Invite and Frosh/Soph meet

The Islander Track schedule last week consisted of two popular pre-finals events, the Escondido Invite on Friday, and the Frosh/Soph meet on Saturday. Entry into each are performance-based. We sent two athletes to the Frosh/Soph meet and six to Escondido. Our top performer at Escondido was Alysah Hickey who won both the high jump and long jump with meet record marks in both. After leaving all the other high jumpers behind at 5 feet 2 inches, Alysah had the bar set to 5-7 which she cleared on her first try. Then the bar was set to 5-9 which she soared over easily. The final height she tried was 5 feet 11.25 inches in an attempt to break the all-time San Diego Section CIF record of 5-11. She came very close on her second attempt, brushing the bar with her calf on the way down.  Her competition in the long jump was stronger with three jumpers over 18 feet. However, her winning jump of 19-4 was nearly 15 inches beyond the second-place jumper.  Victoria Perez also had a big day while placing third with a Personal Record in the Discus Throw of 125 feet 5 inches. She threw over six feet farther than her previous best which was her school record toss last season of 119 feet 2 inches.  Madden Hundley posted a season-best time for the 1600 meters of 5:14.25 while Nick Dunn placed 5th in the 100 with a time of 11.21 and 8th in the 200 with 22.83.  The winner of the 100 was Madison's Kenan Christon who blazed to a time of 10.42 to claim the second-best time in the State this season.  At the Frosh/Soph meet, Abigail Hundley posted a season-best time of 5:19.78 in the Soph 1600. In the Frosh races, John Cook placed 5th in the Invite 110-meter hurdles with a time of 17.85 as well as 7th in the 300 open hurdles in 46.13. Our next meet is the league finals this Friday at Kearny high school, followed by the CIF prelims on May 11th.

-Coach Green

18-20 April 2019: Double Dual with Clairemont and Kearny, Mt. SAC, Viking Relays

There were three meets last week starting with a double dual meet with Clairemont and Kearny on Thursday, followed by the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) relays held at El Camino College, and the Viking Relays at La Jolla High School on Saturday. It seems that every week the headline is about Alyah Hickey's exploits, and that's the case again this week. Alysah is the state leader In both the long jump and the high jump, and she won both events at Mt. SAC. The Mt. SAC Relays has been held at El Camino College for the last two years because the school's facility is under reconstruction. Mt. SAC is one of the top meets in the country with events for top High School athletes, College Athletes, and Professional athletes. The long jump competition came down to the last two attempts in the finals with Alysah jumping behind the state second-ranked long jumper, Caelyn Harris,  who uncorked a leap of 19 feet 8.5 inches on her fifth jump to take the lead. Alysah followed a few minutes later with 20 feet 1 inch to take it back for the win. Alysah and Caelyn are the only two girls in the state with long jump marks exceeding 20 feet. Alysah's top mark is 20 feet 9 inches; Caelyn has jumped 20 feet 2.5 inches. Caelyn has won every long jump competition she's entered this season except for two, the Arcadia Invite and Mt. SAC. At both meets, Alysah was the winner. Alysah easily won the high jump with a leap of 5 feet 6 inches, then had the bar raised to 5 feet 9. By then her legs were a bit shot as she also competed in the elite heat of the 100-meter dash, so her winning jump remained at 5-6, well-off her school record and leading State Mark of 5 feet 10.5 inches.  For videos and pictures of these events, as well as many others, check our website IslanderTrack.com.

 

The double dual meet on Thursday at Clairemont High School was the last meet of the season where the entire team could compete. Nick Dunn and Kaiona Potter placed 1-2 for both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Dunn had a big PR in the former with a time of 11.13 followed by Potter with a time of 11.92. Carson Stewart, David Norris, and Ryan Vo followed. In the 200 Dunn clocked 22.61 followed by Potter in 23.65, Jesse Vernallis, Race Schwartz, David Norris, Stewart, and Vo. Shane Alihan PR'd in the 400-meter dash while placing 3rd with a time of 54.58 followed by Vernallis who placed 5th with 56.23. The trio of Orion James, Noah Wahamaki, and John Cook were the only entries if the 110-meter hurdles and finished in that order. In the 300 hurdles, Cook and James went 1-2 with times of 46.63 and 46.94 followed by Wahamaki (49.18) in fourth and Alihan in fifth.  Alihan, Dunn, Potter, and Jaynes won the 4x100 with a time of 46.02 with Stewart, Schwartz, Wahamaki, and Vernallis following in the "B" team with a time of 48.75. Jack Weisbrod won the shot put with a PR of 37 feet 11 inches followed by Andrew Needham and Asa Valdivia in 5th and 6th. Weisbrod placed 2nd in the Discus followed by Needham in 5th and Valdivia in 7th.  Long jumping for only the second time, Dunn cleared 19 feet 2 inches with Schwartz placing 4th with 16-4. In the 1600-meter run, Cole Mullins place 3rd with 5:05.5 followed by Conor Youngblood (5:36.8) and Xavier Baltazar (5:46.1). Saturday at Viking, Dunn placed 3rd in the 100 with 11.35 and 4th in the 200 with 23.20. Potter ran 12.03 and 24.13 in those races. Alihan's time in the 400 was 55.38. Mullins ran a PR in the 1600 of 4:45.21, Cook had a PR in the 110 hurdles of 18.51, and Wahamaki ran a PR for the 300 hurdles of 46.79. Cook's time for the 300 hurdles was 47.15. In the throws, Weisbrod threw 36-9 in the shot put and 83-6 in the Discus, followed by Joe Whalen in the latter with 69-1. Dunn, Alihan, Potter, and Wahamaki teamed up in the 800-meter Sprint Medley Relay to place 9th.

We loaded-up the sprints for the girls' team at the Thursday meet. Brianna Finnegan won the 100-meter dash with 14.31 with Daniela Rassvetaieff 3rd in 14.46. Jasmine Chaley was 4th followed by Elana Shenas, Samantha Lorr, Skyler Smith, Chloe Cooper, and Sinaia Haskal. Finnegan also won the 200-meter dash in 28.76 with Grace Gehler-Smith placing 3rd with 31.21. Lorr was 6th followed by Smith and Haskal. Sofia Van Arsdale and Regina Czerewko went 1-2 in the 400-meter run with times of 62.24 and 64.86 with Gehler-Smith in 6th. Abigail and Madden Hundley cruised to a 1-2 finish in the 800 with times of 2:30.8 and 2:38.6. Madden won the 1600 with 5:38.0 followed by Samantha Russell in 3rd with 6:14.5 and Maya Haskal in 7th.  Czerewho won the 300 hurdles in 52.72 followed by Chaney in 3rd with 58.56.  As usual Victoria Perez won the shot put and discus throws with marks of 33-2 in the shot and 116-1 in the discus. Hickey soared to 19 feet 4 inches to win the long jump followed by Lorr, Finnegan, and Shenas. We won the 4x100 in 55.57 with Czerewho, Finnigan, Rassvetaieff, and Gehler Smith. At Viking Van Arsdale ran 5:17.57 for the 1600, a PR for her. This was only her second attempt at this distance so she'll go quite a bit faster. Czerewko PR'd in both the 400-meter run and 300-meter hurdles with times of 64.64 and 52.11. Perez placed 3rd in the shot put with a mark of 32-2 and 5th in the discus with 104-5.5.  The season is over for the majority of the team. We qualified a few athetes for the Escondido Invite this Friday, as well as the Frosh/Soph meet on Saturday.

-Coach Green

11-13 April 2019: Madison Dual Meet, UCSD Triton Invite, Jaguar Invite

There wasn't a lot of action for track this week, but there were a few performances worthy of mention. In a dual meet with Madison High School on Thursday, Victoria Perez won both the shot put and discus throw as usual. Her mark in the shot put of 36 feet 2 Inches was eight inches farther than her 35-6 toss on 14 March that broke her school record from last season of 34-7. At the UCSD Triton Invite, Nick Dunn posted a Personal Record for a Fully Automatic Time (FAT) in the 100-meter dash of 11.26. He also ran 23.16 FAT for the 200.  I put Sofia Van Arsdale in the Jaguar Invite to get her a qualifying time for the upcoming Frosh/Soph meet. She placed fourth in 5:23.69 for her first ever 1600, which should put her in the fast heat among Sophomores. She currently ranks second among all San Diego Sophs in the 800 with a time of 2:19.85. Also, at the Madison meet, Shane Alihan tried the 400 for the first and placed second in 55.78.  Freshman John Cook three-stepped the 110 hurdles for a win in 18.84. He also placed second in the 300 hurdles with a time of 47.34.  Jack Weisbrod and Joe Whalen went 2-3 in the shot put with 34-8 and 33-1 respectively. Weisbrod also placed second in the discus with 86-9. Weisbrod's marks in the shot and disc should get him in the sophomore flights at the upcoming County Frosh/Soph meet.

-Coach Green

4-6 April 2019: Lincoln Dual, Arcadia Invite, Arnie Robinson Invite

This week's track adventures included two Invitationals that we took a few athletes to on Saturday and a dual meet with Lincoln on Thursday. The highlight of the Saturday competition was Alysha Hickey's double win at the Arcadia Invite, held at Arcadia High School, in both the high jump and long jump. The Arcadia Invite is the premier High School track meet in the country with over 4000 of the top athletes in the US attending. Alysah originally was entered in the top flights of both the high jump and long jump, as well as the fast heat of the 100-meter dash. However, because, all three events started within a couple of hours of one-another she would have had to compete in the high jump and long jump at the same time, with the 100 most likely to start before both of the jumping events were over. Fortunately, the meet director allowed her to jump in the open section of the high jump in the morning which freed her to concentrate on the long jump and 100-meter dash in the night events. She easily won the open high jump with a leap of 5 feet 9 inches. The next best height was 5 feet 5 inches. After the 5-5 clearance she had the bar put at 5-7, then 5-9, and finally at 5-11 ¼ inch to take a shot at the San Diego Section record, which is 5-11. In the Invitational evening session, she won the invite long jump with her last effort of 19 feet 11.25 inches. If she had competed in the invite high jump, she would have won that as well as the winning height was 5 feet 8 inches. Alysah was the only San Diego Section Athlete to win an Invitational event at the meet. She had to scratch the 100-meter dash because it went off at the same time that she was taking her last attempts in the long jump. Arcadia is also one of the top multi-event high school meets in the country.  Alysha's training partner, Ruthie-Grant Williams, placed ninth in the heptathlon. In her best events, she cleared 5 feet 4 inches in the high jump and clocked  15.34 in the 100-meter hurdles. Had the wind reading been .3 meters per second slower, this time would have lowered her school record which is currently 15.50 set at the Escondido Invite last season. Her clearance in the high jump would have placed her fourth in the Open Competition and sixth in the Invite Section. The Heptathlon consists of seven events held over two days. The events were 100-meters, High Jump, Shot Put, and 200 meters on Friday. On Saturday the events were the Long Jump, Javelin, and 800-meter run.
 
 Closer to home, we entered a few athletes in the Seventh Annual Arnie Robinson Invite held at Mesa College. This Invite is becoming more popular every season as it offers a full range of both JC and HS events.  Our top performer was Sofia Van Arsdale who took the lead from the gun in the 800-meter run to win by nearly ten seconds with a meet record time of 2:19.85.  Victoria Perez placed third in the shot put with a heave of 33 feet even and seventh in the discus throw with a toss of 112 feet 6 inches. Regina Czerewko clocked a Personal Record in the 400 with a time of 65.02 and came back in the 200 which she ran in a near PR of 29.67.  For the boys, Nick Dunn PR'd in the 100-meter dash while placing fifth with a time of 11.30 followed by Kainoa Potter who ran 12.04.  Both also ran the 200 with Dunn clocking 21.27 and Potter 24.39. Noah Wahamaki lowered his PR for the 400 with a time of 59.08.

At the dual meet on Thursday, Sarah Barns and Czerewko went 1-2 in the 200-meter dash with times of 29.28 and 30.17. Barns also won the 300 hurdles in 50.29 followed by Jasmine Chaney in second. Van Arsdale, Barnes, and Czerewko swept the 400-meter dash with times of 62.37, 64.07, and 66.67 respectively. Other top finishers for the girls were Madden Hundley and Maya Haskal who went 1-2 in the 1600, and Perez who won both the shot put and Discus Throw.

For the boys' team Dunn had a couple of close races in the 100-meter dash with Lincoln's speedy Emmanuel Okere. In both races, he was a close second with times of 11.37 and 23.03. His 200-meter time was a personal record. In the 100 Potter placed 4th with a time of 11.92 followed by Shane Alihan, Zane Delcore, and Orian James who were all under 13 seconds. In the 200 Potter was our only other boy under 24 seconds with 23.86. In the 1600, the Mullins Brothers, Cole and Landon went 1-2 with times of 5:08.5 and 5:11.6. Brad Busby was hanging back to pace Conor Youngblood to a PR of 5:38 with Xavier Baltazar placing fifth in 5:52. In the 300 hurdles, all the runners were from Coronado. The order of finish was John Cook (47.73), Delcore (48.93), Wahamaki (50.00), James (51.35), and Tim Shumaker (52.14). Cook and James placed 2-3 in the high jump with 5-2 and 5-0. Jack Weisbrod and Joe Whalen placed 2-3 in the shot put and 3-4 in the discus. Delcore also placed 2nd in the long jump with 17-2. In the 4x100, Lincoln dopped the baton which gave the quartet of Alihan, Delcore, Dunn, and Potter the win with a time of 46.02.

-Coach Green