Busy Week for Coronado Track and Field Team Racking Up Wins

There were three meets last week, a cluster meet with Crawford and Christian, a distance festival, and the Mt. SAC Relays.

Head Coach Cameron Gary details the meets below.

4/18 League Meet – Crawford & Christian

• The Islanders were in action for their last City League meet of the 2024 season. This competition featured teams from Christian HS, Crawford HS, and our CHS Islanders. The venue was the track at Crawford HS. Unfortunately, this meet used a “hand” (manual) timing method for the running events instead of the contemporary standard, fully automatic timing (FAT). Although the race finish results and orders will stand, the final times cannot be considered for record or ranking consideration because they were not FAT.
• Standout varsity performances began with both boys and girls sprint (4x100m) relays notching victories. The Islander girls’ quartet of senior Tatiana Potter, junior Lauren Gilhooly, senior Lindsey Balsley, and sophomore Summer Little won convincingly with a time of 49.2 seconds. The Islander girls are the #1 sprint relay team in the City League. The Islander boys’ team of junior Sean Groeneveld, junior Von Pritchett, sophomore Davin Collins, and junior David Castillo won a hotly contested race, edging 0.1 second victory over Christian with a time of 44.8 seconds. The Islander boys have run a faster time this season, and currently rank #2 in the City League.
• Sophomore distance standout Nathan Ayan continued with his winning ways, notching a four-second victory in the varsity boys 800m run, with a winning time of 2:09.4. In the varsity girls 300 Hurdles, Balsley showed consistency and won with a time of 49.5 seconds.
• The Islanders notched victories in the sprint events, led by girl sprint standout Gilhooly, who won the 100m Dash in a time of 11.7 seconds. The Islanders swept this event, as she was followed by Potter and Little, finishing in second and third place, respectively. Potter doubled back to win the girls 200m Dash with a time of 26.7 seconds. Sophomore Micaela Gistaro won the girls 400m Dash with a time of 63.4 seconds. She doubled back to take second place in the 200m Dash behind Potter.

• And on the boys’ side, the Islanders swept the 100m Dash, led by Collins in 11.1 seconds. He was closely followed by Groeneveld and Pritchett in 11.2 and 11.3 seconds, respectively.

• In the varsity field events, Balsley won the girls Long Jump with a leap of 17’ 6”. Sophomore Eddie Gonzalez won the boys Discus with a throw of 103’ 7”. This was a PR (personal record) for him and his first time exceeding 100 feet.

• The Islanders closed the meet with victories in the 4×400 Relays. The Islanders lead the City League in both events. The girl quartet of Balsley, Potter, Gistaro and Gilhooly notched a time of 4:15.4. And the boys’ quartet of junior Jace Larson, senior Marco Velarde, senior Rafael Roos, and Ayan ran 3:33.5. Notwithstanding the fact these were hand-timed, those times are several seconds faster than the next fastest teams in the City League.

4/19 Milestone Distance Festival

• The Milestone Distance Festival at Crawford is a relatively new local invite, only in its second year. Its only events, other than a mixed gender 4×400, are the 400, 800, 1600, and 3200 meter runs. We had three athletes participate. Rafael Roos won the Invitational 800-meter race by nearly 5 seconds in 2:00.04 to set a new meet record. Freshman Xavier Marsh set a PR in the 400 with a third-place finish in the fastest open heat with a time of 55.09. Jaya Jost, running the 1600 for the first time, ran 6:30.77 to ensure advancement to the league finals.

4/20 Mt. SAC Relays

• A group of four Islander girl sprinters made the trek up to Walnut, CA for the 64th edition of the Mt. SAC Relays. This is the largest track & field meet in the western United States, and it features competitors at the high school, collegiate, and professional (elite) levels. This is a very difficult meet to get into and it is an honor to represent our school there.
• The Islanders were a last-minute addition to the girls’ seeded 4×100 Relay event. This came as a combination of two events… Firstly, the Islanders’ notching a City League leading fully automatic time of 49.38 seconds in their April 18th dual meet versus Madison… And secondly, another team dropping out of the first section, which left an opening for the Islanders.
• The Islander quartet of senior Tatiana Potter, junior Lauren Gilhooly, senior Lindsey Balsley, and sophomore Summer Little not only competed well, they went on to WIN their heat with a City League leading time of 48.83 seconds. In this race the Islanders defeated teams from La Canada, Corona, Mission Viejo, Cathedral Catholic, Stockdale, etc. The Islanders sprint relay now sits at #2 in the San Diego CIF Division 3, just 1/100^th of a second behind La Jolla. Additionally, this time ranks #6 in the ENTIRE San Diego Section, including all divisions.

For hundreds of additional photos from all of our meets go to http://IslanderTrack.com.