CAMPOLINDO

After a regular season that was highlighted with any number of personal and team records, the post-season for Campolindo proved to be just as successful. Starting with the league tournament where the boys and girls both finished first, to the Tri-Valley Meet and Meet of Champions which led to a solid number of athletes that headed to the state tournament in both track and field events.

    The boys 4 x 800 relay team and pole vaulter Malik Li and the girls 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams, and Jasmine McCasland running 400 meters, Claire Andrzejek 800 meters, and pole vaulter Sophia Moore all made it to the state tournament.

    The boys relay team of Chase Mickens, Thomas Riley, Caden Ehrhorn and Cody De La Cruz finished in fifth with a time of 7:48.2, a school record. “Having battled illness and injuries in prior weeks, to have the team put it together and finishing ahead of all of the other Northern California teams was a really great way to end the season,” said assistant coach Andy Lindquist. 

    This was the first time that Campolindo was represented by a boy and a girl pole vaulter simultaneously at the state meet. Moore was the only sophomore to finish in the top 10 and her vault of 11’10” was the second highest in school history. 

    McCasland, who finished third in the 400 meters at the MOC also ran on both the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relay teams. Sarah Graves and Emma Stimmler also ran on both relays with Ilinca Galatanu, the fourth runner on the 4 x 400 and Moore the fourth on the 4 x 100.

    “Across the board, we’ve had crazy improvements from top to bottom,” Lindquist said. “Sophomore Denzel Parker made it to the Meet of Champions finals and finished tenth, freshman Thomas Riley, in his first year running the 800 ran 1:57 and made it to the MOC finals and helped our 4 x 800 relay make it to state. Carter Cook made his first NCS in the 1600 finishing fifth, another phenomenal improvement curve from last year to now. At the top end Claire Andrzejek, went from being a solid runner last year running 2:16 in the 800 to now running 2:09 in the MOC and finishing in 12th at state. Emma Stimmler had a breakout year in the 100 and 300 hurdles along with running the relays.”

    Lindquist saw this as a season without peer. “If you just look at the paper results at the NCS and State, the eight school records we broke, our sending the most athletes ever to the state championship, by those metrics, this has been our most successful season of all time. Credit goes to all of these athletes from top to bottom for having a phenomenal season.”

ACALANES

    With the boys and girls track teams both finishing in second at the DAL Meet and the boys finishing in second at the Tri-Valley Meet and the girls in sixth place, head coach Joe Escobar was very optimistic heading into the Meet of Champions.

    “We brought 14 members of the team to the MOC which was the most that we’ve had in a long time. We just have really incredible kids that work really hard. We’ve raised the bar and have asked a lot of them and they’ve done whatever they needed to do to get where they are right now.”

    The 4 x 100 relay team for the boys led by Matthew Schwarz, Illias Kaplanes-Jones, Jackson Boselli and River Lockwood and the 4 x 400 team of Julian Hood, Benjamin Mickelson and Lockwood had been solid all season as was the girls 4 x 400 team of Cam Thornton, Olivia Kemp, Tori Hiatt, and Isabelle Agnost. “It’s the same thing that we told the team that came in second at the state tournament a couple of years ago: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” Escobar said.

    Unfortunately, Lockwood who came into the MOC having broken the school record with a time of 39.06 in the 300-meter hurdles, pulled his hamstring crossing the finish line on the 4 x 100. “That definitely hurt us,” Escobar said. “He was on the 4 x 400 and was unable to run the hurdles as well.” With Boselli stepping in for Lockwood, they just missed making it to state though they did run under 3:20 for the third time in team history.

    Others who made it to the MOC were Illias Kaplanes-Jones who ran the 100- and 200-meters races and long jumped, Boselli and Schwarz who ran the 200 meters, Benjamin Mickelson the 400 meters, Harry Zimmerman the 1600 meter, Miles Moore who pole vaulted and Deonte Littlejohn who threw the shot and discus. 

    Cam Thornton ran the 400 meters, Nevis Murphy the 1600 meters, Olivia Kemp the 300-meter hurdles and Amari Hollins who became the first girl from Acalanes to make it to the meet as a discus thrower.

    In the end, the only two to make it to state were Kaplanes-Jones in the long jump and Littlejohn in the shot and discus. “Deonte has always been great, owning the team record in the discus and has made great strides as a shot putter,” Escobar said. “Illias had a great year and made it to state on his last jump.”

    Kaplanes-Jones would finish in 18th with a jump of 21’11.25 and Littlejohn would finish in 11th in the discus (168’1”) and 17th in the discus (52-9.75)

    With a number of freshmen and sophomores moving up next season along with Jake Mikalis who was the only freshman on the varsity competing in both track and field events along with juniors like Boselli and Mickelson and Campos, Agnost and Hollins on the girl’s side, there’s a lot to look forward to.
 
MIRAMONTE 

    In his first year as the Miramonte head track coach, Robert Kennedy made it clear what he wanted for his team. “I wanted to create an environment where the kids feel safe and they’re having fun while raising their energy. When you have high energy, you get more output in practice and there’s more sense of urgency.” 

    Kennedy, who ran track at the University of California, brought his experiences to the athletes. “I wanted to show them how this can open up doors to new possibilities like going on to compete in college. We’ve raised their level of competition so it wasn’t always just a team atmosphere and that has resulted in us setting a lot of personal records and making it to the Meet of Champions.”

    Qualifying for the Meet of Champions were Logan Letulle who ran the 3,200 meters in 9:56.59, Alex Howe who put the shot 46’09 and high jumper Max Pickett who previously had jumped 6’1” at the Tri-Valley Meet. “Max broke a number of personal records this year.” 

    Leading the girls at the MOC was their 4 x 100 relay team of Amaya Kennedy, Mia Cortesio, Kate Knight, and Olivia Durinck, all of whom will be returning next year and ran a time of 49.67. Knight also ran the 200 meters in 25.61 and Durinck ran the 400 meters in 58.98. Cotresio had a 4’10” coming into the meet and Jaya Patel pole vaulted 9’11” and triple jumped 33’02”. Senior Milla Ohrbach qualified for the State Meet for the third year in a row finishing in second in the discus (131’07”) and third in the discus (37-10.5) but opted instead to attend her graduation.

    “Milla is a real powerhouse that brings pure athleticism to her events and uses a little bit of everything to her advantage,” Kennedy said. “Jaya is just a freshman and had a great year putting marks way out there. You give her information and she just internalizes it and makes it happen.”

    Durinck finished in 14th at the Meet of Champions and Isabel Mickel finished in 13th in the 3200 meters at the Tri-Valley Meet. “Olivia is the faster runner on our team,” Kennedy said. “Kate Knight is a great athlete who also plays soccer. She is all about track now and has dedicated herself to refine her sprinting technique and she has a lot more in the tank.”

    With a solid group stepping up from the Frosh-Soph team, Kennedy is very optimistic about the team’s future along with the experience his athletes went through at the Meet of Champions. “For most of our athletes that made it to MOC, this was their first time at a large scale meet and got a taste of what it was like to compete at a major event but were able to handle the pressure well. I want my team to be able to have those experiences so every time we show up, it’s giving them the confidence that they can compete with those athletes and when next year comes around, they can step up and meet the moment.”