At the CIF Track & Field preliminaries held at Valley Center High School last Saturday, seven Islanders moved on to the Finals on June 12th. The prelims included a girls’ meet in the morning and a boys’ meet in the afternoon to reduce the number of athletes and guests. Because the remaining number of athletes is now half that of the prelims, the finals are co-ed starting at 5:00 pm, again at Valley Center High School. The girls’ team advanced Sofia Van Arsdale in the 800, Abby Hundley in the 1600, Lily Clemons in the 3200, Claire Cook in both the 300 hurdles and the 400, and Lindsey Balsley in both the 300 hurdles and the Long Jump.
For the boys, the Delcore brothers combined forces to advance in five events. Jack Delcore moved on in both the 110 and the 300-meter hurdles, while Zane Delcore qualified in the 300 hurdles, the long jump, and the shot put. The criteria to move on was to finish among the top nine for your event.
Cook qualified for the 400 with a time of 60.52 in fifth place. There were two heats in the 300 hurdles, with Cook in the second heat and Balsley in the first. Both won their heats with Personal Best times. Balsley’s race was very close. A bit of a stumble helped the second-place finisher almost catch up, but Balsley won by 1/100 of a second in 50.15. Cook’s race was close as well, but she had nearly a one-second margin at the finish with a time of 48.50. Hundley moved on in the 1600 by finishing third out of the two heats in 5:16.76. Van Arsdale placed seventh overall in the 800, and Balsley placed eighth overall in the long jump. The 3200 was byed to the finals to keep the crowd down, so Clemons will race this Saturday. Zane and Jack Delcore were seeded in lanes five and six in the second heat of the boys’ 300 hurdles. Zane placed third with a time of 44.21 and Jack fifth with 45.99. When times from the two heats were combined Zane was fifth overall and Jack eighth overall, so they both moved on to the finals. Zane’s mark in the shot put of 40 feet 4 inches was a PR by nearly two feet and netted him sixth place overall. Jack Weisbrod was close in the shot put, but needed about 14 inches more to qualify.
