Aside from a handful of distance runners at the Mt. Carmel Invite on March 12th, none of the Coronado Islander Track Team had seen any action until we had a cluster meet on Thursday, March 17th with Lincoln, High Tech High (San Diego), and Crawford. Then, two days later on Saturday, we were at the Elmer Runge Invite at Patrick Henry.
We have a young team this season, many with no competitive track experience. Out of the 38 current members, 11 are freshmen, 12 are sophomores, 20 had never competed in a high school track meet, and only 10 are girls. Our new head track coach, Cameron Gary, has been working hard on strength and technique with frequent weight room sessions for all the sprinters, throwers, and jumpers. The cluster meet on Thursday was a new experience for over half of the team. Many were a bit nervous, but in the end, everyone had a good time, and now they’re ready for the rest of the season.
Scoring for cluster meets are school-by-school matchups with 5 points for a first-place finish, 3 for a second-place finish, and 1 for a third-place finish. A relay win is worth 5 points, with no points for other positions. For the boys the scores were: Coronado 67, High Tech High 30; Coronado 54, Crawford 49; Lincoln 55, Coronado 43. For the girls Coronado won over High Tech High by the score of 48 to 11. However, they lost to both Crawford and Lincoln by the scores of 56 to 41 and 53 to 28 respectively.
The Runge Invite on Saturday wasn’t for the entire team because of the level of competition. Over 30 schools were entered, and we took 16 boys and eight girls. Several Islanders came away with top-ten overall performances out of all the heats and flights. For the boys, Zane Delcore PR’d in the 300 hurdles while finishing second with a time of 42.49. He also placed eighth in the long jump with a leap of 19 feet 1 inch.
In the girls’ throws, Tatum Wade placed second overall in the shot put with a toss of 30 feet 3 inches and sixth in the discus with a 15-foot PR of 90 feet 7 inches.
Lindsey Balsley placed third in the long jump with 15 feet 9.25 inches and fifth in the 100 with a time of 13.94. In the cluster meet on Thursday, she PR’d with a long jump of 17-1.75.
In the girls’ 3200-meter run, Lily Clemons PR’d with a time of 12:32.88 while finishing in fourth place. She was followed by freshman Eva Vinegrad who placed 10th. Dana Jennings placed seventh in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:52.72.
Our next cluster meet will be Thursday, March 24th with the next invite, the Calvin Christian Small School Invite, at Escondido High School on Saturday, March 26th.
For more photos from this and other meets, as well as a team shot, click on the link below.
https://www.greensthings.com/Track-and-Field/2022-Track-and-Field
