The season opener for Coronado Track and Field was the Elmer Runge Invitational held at Patrick Henry High School last Saturday. It’s a bit early for all but the kids who have been participating in Pre-Season Training so only about a third of the team went. Head T&F Coach Cameron Gary supplies the details below.
The 2025 Islander Track & Field team opened the season with competition at the Elmer Runge Invitational at Patrick Henry High School on March 1. There were 41 high school teams in attendance from throughout San Diego and Imperial counties. The standout performer at this meet was senior sprinter and Cal Berkeley commit Lauren Gilhooly who took home female Athlete of the Meet honors. She won the women’s 100m Dash and the David Russell Invitational women’s 200m Dash with times of 12.09 seconds (into a slight headwind) and 24.73 seconds, respectively. Both times are the fastest so far in the San Diego CIF section for this outdoor season. She also ran a leg on the Islander women’s 4×100 Relay, along with junior Micaela Gistaro, sophomore Maya Wilson, and freshman Claudia Wagner. This unit clocked a time of 50.44 seconds, the fastest time of the day and currently the fourth fastest time in the San Diego CIF section.
Other top ten (overall) finishers for the Islanders at this meet were Gistaro with a second place finish in the women’s 400m Dash, in personal record (PR) time of 59.67 seconds. That time is currently the seventh fastest outdoor time in that event in the San Diego section. Junior Nathan Ayan placed third in the men’s 800m Run with a time of 2:05.00. The Islander men’s 4×100 Relay team of senior David Castillo, and juniors Davin Collins, William Heyen, and Mason Gibbs won their heat and placed fourth overall with a time of 45.06 seconds. In addition to her relay duties, Wagner also placed fifth in the women’s Long Jump with a leap of 14’ 11.25”.
Additional top ten finishers were junior Summer Little, with a fifth-place finish in the women’s 200m Dash with a time of 27.72 seconds, and Collins, who finished seventh in the David Russell Invitational men’s 200m Dash, and ninth in the men’s 100m Dash, with times of 23.24 and 11.58 seconds, respectively. Another top ten Islander was Wilson, with an eighth place finish in the 100m Dash with a time of 13.33 seconds (also into a headwind). Senior Reif Souder finished ninth in the men’s 300m Hurdles, with a PR time of 43.50 seconds.
Rounding out the top ten finishers were both medley relays. Normal relay events involve all team members running an equally divided portion of the prescribed total race distance, for example, 4x100m. In “medley” relays each athlete runs a different portion (distance) of the total race distance… Thus, a medley or mixture of distances. The 800m Sprint Medley relay (100m – 100m – 200m – 400m) team of sophomore Meliq Avetyan, freshmen Liam Morocco and Niko Andretic Waldowski, and sophomore Xavier Marsh, finished seventh with a time of 1:44.33. The 4000m Distance Medley relay (1200m – 400m – 800m – 1600m) team of junior Oscar Alicandri, senior Austin Litteral, Marsh, and senior Jack Letcher finished 10th with a time of 12:25.91.
