Updates from Coach George Green on Islander Track and Field events in March.
Bronco Invite – March 10
Mainly, because of Scholastic Assessment Testing the previous Saturday, only four athletes went to the Bronco Invitational at Rancho Bernardo High School. It was cold and rainy all day, but our athletes all did very well. The busiest of the lot was Ruthie Grant-Williams who competed in four events. She won the high jump with a leap of 5 foot 2 inches, set a new school record in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal record time of 15.39, medaled in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet 8 inches, and ran the 300-meter hurdles. It’s noteworthy that at this point in the season Ruthie’s 100-meter hurdle mark leads the county and her high jump mark puts her in a 3-way tie for second place behind Coronado’s Alysah Hickey. Alysah had competed at the New Balance National indoor meet in New York the previous weekend where she clocked 7.83 for the 60-meter dash and high-jumped 5 feet 3 inches.
In the girls’ 800-meter run freshman Sofia Van Arsdale placed second with PR of 2:22.45. She was the only freshman who qualified for the event and now ranks seventh in the county behind six girls who are all juniors and seniors. The race was only the second time she’d run the 800. Obviously, she’ll be one to watch over the next four years. Another freshman to watch is Abby Hundley, who placed second in the Frosh 1600-meter run.
Her race was one of the most entertaining to watch as she’s still trying to figure out how to pace herself. Trang Woolridge from Westview took the lead from the start with Abby and Elizabeth Gerhardt from Sage Creek battling it out for second place for most of the race. Every time Abby would challenge, Gerhardt would come back. The announcer called it an “Epic battle for second.” They passed each other at least six times. In the stretch, Abby took off and nearly caught Woolridge who ran 5:28.41 to Abby’s 5:28.58. Had Abby started her kick a little earlier she would have easily won.
Our only boy at the meet was Ian Hurlburt who ran the 800. Ian’s a closer with great foot-speed. He stayed with the lead pack for most of the race and took-off at the top of the last curve to win in a county-leading time of 1:57.73.
Elmer Runge Invite – March 17
and Lincoln, Mission Bay, Coronado scrimmage
Alysah Hickey Breaks two meet records at Elmer Runge Invite.
Two track meets: a scrimmage between Lincoln, Mission Bay, and Coronado on Thursday at Mission Bay, and the Elmer Runge Invite held at West Hills High School on Saturday. At the latter meet, Alysah Hickey not only won all three of the events she entered, but she also set school records in two of them. It was rainy all day, so her mark on the high jump was well-off her best. Still, it was good enough to win with a jump of 5 feet even. She didn’t do badly in the long jump with a meet-record leap of 17 feet 11 inches, but that was way off her best of 19 feet 5-1/2 inches. Her final event was the 100-meter dash which she won easily with a meet-record time of 12.04 over the second place finisher, Jordon Earl from West Hills, who clocked 12.39. Earl’s time of 12.39 puts her in a tie for the second-best time for the 100-meter dash with Olympian’s Kolumbia Page. In addition to leading the county in the 100-meter dash, Hickey also is the current county leader in both the High Jump and the Long Jump. In the girls 800-meter run Teresa Perez and Sofia Van Arsdale easily outdistanced the field with times of 2:18.99 and 2:21.61 respectively. Other finishers for the girls’ races were Madden Hundley who cruised to an easy win in the 1600-meter run and Annie Holland who placed fifth in the girls’ 400-meter dash. In the last event of the day, Van Arsdale, Hundley, Holland, and Perez teamed-up to win an exciting 4×400 relay over Poway with the Islanders clocking 4:17.79 to Poway’s 4:19.23. Helix was a close third with 4:20.81. The other schools were out of contention.
For the boys, Ian Hurlburt continued his string of 800-meter wins with a time of 1:59.89 followed by Luke Klingenberg who was fifth in 2:03.91. In other events, Danny Mineo placed seventh in the 1600-meter run, Nicholas Dunn PR’d in the 100 with a time of 11:52, and Shane Alihan ran 12.18 and 25.36 in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
The scrimmage on Thursday was mainly to get marks for our new and returning athletes after three weeks of training. We now have 100-meter marks for nearly all of our male sprinters with Dunn, Alihan, Max Fuller, Ben Cahill, and Leo Adams with times under 13 seconds. Dunn also clocked 23.96 for the 200-meter dash. Kainoa Potter ran 56 seconds for the 400 followed by Chris Russell and Ryan Meachum. We went 1-2-3 in the shot-put with Hayden Dunlap, Nate Kim, and Andrew Needham. Joseph Whalen was fifth and Jack Weisbrod seventh. In the discus-throw, Weisbord placed second with Needham fourth, Kim fifth, Whalen seventh, and Dunlap eleventh. For the girls, Jimena Mendez looked good placing third in the 200 with a time of 13.54. In that race, Brianna Finnegan and Daniela Rassvetaieff were both under 15 seconds. As usual, Hickey and Ruthie Grant-Williams won the high jump, long jump, sprints and hurdle events. Perez skipped the distance events but placed second to Hickey in the 200 with a time of 27.84. Holland cruised to an easy win in the 800 with 2:35. I thought we weren’t going to have any pole vaulters this season, but it turns out that junior, Regina Czerewko, vaulted in the seventh grade. We took a couple of practices, and she cleared 6 feet for third. Our next two meets are a double-dual meet vs. Crawford and Christian this Thursday at Crawford, followed by the Mt. Carmel Invite for those who qualified by mark this Saturday.
March 24 – Mt. Carmel,
March 22 – cluster with Christian and Crawford
For the second week in a row, the Islander track team had back-to-back meets on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday’s meet was a league cluster with Christian and Crawford; Saturday’s meet was the Mt. Carmel Invitational. For the cluster meet we kept out, or lightly used, the athletes who competed at Mt. Carmel. The Mt. Carmel Invite has been around for 39 years and has developed into one of the top meets in California with entries from all over the country. As usual, Alysah Hickey excelled by winning the High Jump with a Personal Record of 5 feet 8 inches, the Long Jump with a leap of 18 feet 10.25 inches, and she placed 2nd in the 100-meter dash with a school record time of 11.87 to Jasmine Frost’s winning time of 11.74. Normally a time of 11.87 will easily win the 100, but Jasmine Frosh from Serra in the Southern Section is one of the top sprinters in the state. Frost is currently ranked third in the state and Hickey seventh based on the times run at Mt. Carmel. Statewide, Hickey is ranked second in the high jump and first in the long jump. Her long jump PR of 19 feet 5.25 inches ranks her seventh in the US for that event. She also anchored the 4×100 team to a new school record of 48.91. Ruthie Grant- Williams ran the lead-off leg, followed by Madison Shanks who ran second, and Abby Whittemore, who ran the third leg. Grant-Willams currently leads the county in the 100 hurdles with a time of 15.39 but in her race at Mt. Carmel she was running so fast that she got too close to the last three hurdles and didn’t go over cleanly enough to place. She also placed third in the high jump, and long jumped 16 feet 8.5 inches. In the girls’ 1600 meter races, freshman Abby Hundley, was only a couple of seconds off her PR with a time of 5:33.3, while her sister Madden PR’d by a second in 5:17.92. Freshman Sofia Van Arsdale gets faster with each race. At Mt. Carmel she easily won her 800-meter heat with a time of 2:20.69. In the girls’ Distance Medley Relay, we were a bit off our best time and placed eighth with a time of 13:03.64. Madden Hundley ran the 1200 leg followed by Abby Hundley, who ran the 400 leg; Van Arsdale ran the 800 leg; and Teresa Perez ran the 1600 leg.
For the boys, Ian Hurlburt continued his string of 800-meter wins by taking the fast heat with a time of 1:56.28. He remains at the top of the San Diego leaderboard for the 800. After a bout with flu, Luke Klingenberg made a nice comeback in the 1600-meter run with a respectable time of 4:31.18. He should be back to his old self pretty soon.
Thursday’s cluster meet was an opportunity for those who didn’t have the required marks to get into Mt. Carmel to face some good competition and obtain marks for the Athletic.net database that will serve as seed times for future events. We entered 14 boys in the 100-meter dash with nine running times under 13 seconds. The fastest of the lot was Nicholas Dunn who clocked the best time of the day in the fast heat with 11.46. Others under 13 seconds were Shane Alihan (12.02), Leo Adams (12.38), Ryan Meachum (12.39), Ben Cahill (12.62), Coltin Cline (12.69), Hayden Dunlap (12.69), Kainoa Potter (12.80) and Jesse Vernallis (12.89). In the boys’ 200-meter dash three of this group run under 26 seconds with Dunn tying for first overall with a time of 23.60 followed by Alihan (25.11), and Cahill, who ran 25.74. In the 400-meter run Hurlburt wanted something fast to prime himself for his 800-meter run on Saturday, so he ran the at 400-meter dash which he easily won with a personal record of 51.38, followed by Maxwell Fuller in 55.36, Potter in 57.50, and Meachum in 57.81. Klingenberg, also getting in a bit of speed, won the 800 with a time of 2:05.3. Danny Mineo placed third in the 1600-meter run with 4:55.1 followed by Chris Russell (5:07) and Nicholas Inzunza (5:08). In the boys’ throwing events River Paquin was impressive with wins in both the shot put (36-6) and the discus throw (112-0). Dunlap placed third in the shot put with 35-5 with Joseph Whalen also over 30 feet with a toss of 31-8. Kobuk Van Houten and Liam Casey tied for third in the high jump at 5 feet 2 inches. Jayden Ferrer placed third in the long jump with 17 feet 9 inches. Casey and Van Houten also had marks over 16 feet in that event.
Because of Mt. Carmel we entered very few girls. Hickey won both the 100-meter dash and long jump with marks of 12.38 and 17-7. Grant-Williams won the 100-meter hurdles in 15.93 and was second in the long jump with 16-7. In those events, Laura Wiese placed third in the hurdles and eighth in the long jump. Van Arsdale and Annie Holland clocked 63.1 and 64.2 in the 400-meter run. Natalya Gomez placed third in the 800 with a time of 2:42.5 with Holland fourth in 2:42.8. Regina Czerewko won the pole vault with 6 feet even and placed sixth in the long jump. Brianna Finnegan was seventh in the long jump and sixth in the 100-meter dash. Still learning the event, Sydney Zoehrer placed third in the high jump. As a practice run for the 4×100 at Mt. Carmel, Grant-Williams, Shanks, Whittemore, and Hickey won the 4×100 relay in 50.41.
