There are track and field invites available nearly every weekend for San Diego athletes. However, because of the large number of schools competing, the entry limits only allow two or three athletes per event. Mt. Carmel’s Field & Distance Carnival solves this by not offering sprint events. In a sprint event, the size of each heat is determined by the number of lanes available, between six and nine, depending on the school. In a distance event, heats of 30 or more runners are common. At the Carnival, in addition to a couple of distance-oriented relays, the 800 (about a half-mile), 1600 (about a mile), and the 3200 (about 2-miles) were run.
The top performance of the day was by Nathan Ayan, who ran a Personal Record (PR) time of 1:57.69 in the fast heat of the 800-meter run. Also running a PR in the same heat was Vincent Russo, who dipped under two minutes for the first time with 1:59.63. Out of the 765 San Diego Section marks so far this season, Ayan ranks fifth and Russo 12th. Only 14 runners in the Section have run under two minutes so far. In earlier heats (there were eight), Andrew Buck ran 2:05.68, and Ziggy Raunig 2:19.12. In the freshmen boys’ 1600, Ayrton Reyes and Evan Russo (Vincent’s brother), both running the “mile” for the first time, clocked times of 5:08.07 and 5:14.95, respectively. In the boys’ varsity 1600 heats, Ziggy Raunig ran 5:07.67, Sebastian Tamariz 5:29.58, and Oscar Alicandri 5:30.07. In the girls’ 1600, Carly DeVore ran a time of 6:17.61, followed by Lily Humphrey with 6:25.87.
In the field events, the long jumpers faced a strong headwind, so their marks were a bit off. Still, Noah Jones managed a leap of 19-feet 5-inches. In that same event, Liam Morocco and Trey Stallworth jumped 17-8.5 and 17-4.25, respectively. Out of the 71 discus throwers competing, there was only one freshman, Coronado’s Landon Nesbitt, who got off a toss of 83 feet 3 inches. Our only other entry was Jeremiah Albrektsen, who placed sixth in the novice high jump with a mark of 5 feet 2 inches.
