Thursday, April 18, 2024

Islander Track and Field Stepping Up and Winding Down

On Thursday, April 13, the Islander Track & Field team competed in their penultimate league match-up with a dual meet at Madison High School. Then, on Saturday, several Islanders qualified for our largest (and last) Invitational meet of the year, the Jim Cerveny Invite at Mission Bay High School. Our head coach, Cameron Gary, chronicles the details of both events below.

On Thursday, April 20, our final cluster meet with Christian and Crawford will be the last outing for many of the JV kids. One of the most challenging events of the local season to qualify for is the Frosh/Soph Meet that will be held this Saturday at Del Norte High School. There are two sections: the open heats in the morning and the tougher invite heats in the late afternoon and evening. Coronado qualified an open Sophomore 4×100 relay team consisting of Sean Groeneveld, Anthony Jones, Mason Olsen, Von Pritchett, and David Castillo. Yes, that’s five runners, but a team can enter up to six, of which only four will run. Groeneveld also qualified for the open soph 200 and 400-meter dashes.

Micaela Gistaro qualified for the Frosh Open 200-meter dash and the Frosh Invite 100-meter dash at F/S

Our other open qualifiers are Reif Souder in the soph 300 hurdles and Micaela Gistaro in the frosh 200-meter dash. Gistaro returns later to run in the frosh invite 100-meter dash. Two other Islanders qualified for the invite meet; Nathan Ayan made the cut in both the 800 and 1600-meter runs; Noah Voltin qualified in the triple jump. Finally, we qualified for the soph invite 4×400 meter relay with Groeneveld, Mason, Souder, and Pritchett. Ayan also qualified for the open 400-meter dash, but we scratched him from that event to concentrate on the invite 800 and 1600 meter runs.

Nathan Ayan qualified for the frosh 400, 800, and 1600 meter runs at Frosh/Soph, but will concentrate on the 800 and 1600.

Qualifiers for the league finals on May 5th will advance by marks achieved during the season, so we don’t know who will get in yet. For those who don’t advance, there is a City Conference JV meet they could possibly run. Our final meets will be the CIF prelims on May 13th and the CIF finals on May 20th. Athletes must qualify via the league finals to advance to the CIF Prelims. To get to the CIF finals athletes must advance out of the prelims. For photos and results of this meet and others, visit our public website at IslanderTrack.com.

Here are the details of our two meets last week from head coach Cameron Gary:
4/13 League Meet – Madison 

Cool, windy afternoon conditions affected some of the results, but the Islanders still performed well. This was a “dual” meet as only two teams (Coronado and Madison) were involved.

Event winners… 

Kaden Brown (junior) – Varsity Men 100m Dash, 200m Dash
Nathan Ayan (freshman) – Varsity Men 800m Run
Rafael Roos (junior) – Varsity Men 1600m Run
Marco Velarde (junior) – Varsity Men 300m Hurdles
Mason Olsen (sophomore) – Varsity Men Long Jump, Varsity Triple Jump
Lindsey Balsley (junior) – Varsity Women 300m Hurdles

Maya Voltin (junior) – Varsity Women Triple Jump
Oscar Alicandri (freshman) – Junior Varsity 1600m Run
Varsity Men 4×100 Relay – Brown, Jaden Banner (senior), Sean Groeneveld (sophomore), Loxly Johnson (sophomore)
Varsity Men 4×400 Relay – Groeneveld, Banner, Brown, Johnson

Personal Records (PR’s) achieved…

Jack Schumaker (junior) – 400m Dash (57.10s)
Will Heyen (freshman) – 400m Dash (59.04s)
Alicandri – 800m Run (2:43.10)
Velarde – 300m Hurdles (45.56s)
Nathan Cohenca (senior) – Shot Put (27’ 1”), Discus (69’ 8”)
Garret Shumaker (freshman) – Shot Put (24’ 4”), Discus (68’ 2”)

4/15 Cerveny Invitational

The Jim Cerveny invitational was our last invitational meet of the year, prior to championship season. The meet featured over 40 teams from around the San Diego area. It is the largest invitational meet the Islanders have competed in all season. We were greeted with pleasant weather, however prevailing headwinds slowed the sprint times considerably. Nonetheless, the Islander performed well overall in the Track and the Field events.

Event winners… 

Kaden Brown (junior) – Seeded Men 200m Dash
Jackson Rohrs-Frazier (sophomore) – Seeded Men High Jump
Noah Voltin (freshman) – Open Men Triple Jump

Medalists (top 3 finish)…

Lindsey Balsley (junior) – 2nd Place, Women Invitational 300m Hurdles, and Invitational Long Jump

Lindsey Balsley placed second in both the invite long jump and 300 meter hurdles at Cerveny. Her long jump was a PR of 17′ 8.25″

Rafael Roos (junior) – 2nd Place, Men Seeded 1600m Run
Micaela Gistaro (freshman) – 3rd Place, Women Frosh Soph 100m Dash, and 200m Dash
Invitational Men 4×400 Relay – 3rd Place; Sean Groeneveld (sophomore), Jaden Banner (senior), Reif Souder (sophomore), Kaden Brown

Personal Records (PR’s) achieved…

Nathan Ayan (freshman) – 400m Dash (55.56s)
Noah Voltin – Triple Jump (37’ 10.50”)
Lindsey Balsley – Long Jump (17’ 8.25”)
Maya Voltin (junior) – Triple Jump (29’ 3.25”)

Jaden Banner handing off to Mason Olsen at during the 4×100 at the Cerveny Invite



George Green
George Green
Head Cross Country and Distance Track Coach, Coronado High School

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