CHS Track & Field Moving On To Championship Meets


Last week the track & field teams competed in the final league cluster of the season on Thursday, followed by the country-wide Frosh/Soph meet on Saturday. Head coach Cameron Gary details the performance of the team below. Our league championship meet will be on May 5, but there is a City Conference JV championship meet that several of our athletes who don’t qualify for the league meet this Friday. Those who qualify out of the league championships will move on to the CIF prelims on May 13.
Qualifiers from the CIF prelims will compete at the Division-3 CIF finals on May 20.

Here is Coach Gary’s take on last week’s adventures.

4/20 League Meet – Crawford & Christian

This was our last League meet of the year. Crawford HS hosted, and the third team competing was Christian HS. Unfortunately, Crawford did not have a fully-automatic timing system (FAT) available, so this meet was hand-timed. Consequently, we opted to either rest some athletes or move athletes around into events they do not normally run. Non-FAT times are not recognized for personal records (PR), championship meet qualifying, etc. However, Islander athletes were still able to produce some notable performances.

Sophomore Sean Groeneveld won the varsity men’s 400m dash with a (converted… from hand-time to FAT) time of 52.64s. This time should place him as the number two performer in the City League.

Junior Lindsey Balsley made her season debut in the varsity women’s 200m dash, winning the event with a converted time of 28.14s.

Freshman Micaela Gistaro won the varsity women’s 400m with a (converted) PR time of 1:04.14.

Senior Saxton Sylvester won the men’s discus with a throw of 104’ 7”.

Sophomore Mason Olsen jumped a PR of 39’ 2” while winning the men’s varsity triple jump.

Junior Rafael Roos scored a PR of 2:10.99 while finishing second in the varsity men’s 800m run.

Sophomore Jackson Rohrs-Frazier jumped a PR of 5’ 4” in the junior varsity men’s high jump.

Junior Caroline Cole ran a PR of 16:22.4 in the women’s varsity 3200m run.

Freshman Mason Gibbs jumped a PR of 16’ 7” in the junior varsity men’s long jump.

Freshmen Oscar Alicandri and Anton Youngblood both scored PRs in the junior varsity men’s 1600m. They ran times of 5:48.67 and 6:23.79, respectively.  

4/22 Dick Wilkins Frosh-Soph Championships

The Islanders qualified several athletes for this meet. It is notable because an athlete must be among the top 18–30 athletes in their event, within their class, in the entire San Diego Section. In short, these are the top freshman and sophomore high school Track & Field athletes in the county. The competition is quite fierce, and it is an honor to compete in this meet. These athletes generally represent the future top high school Track & Field athletes in the county.

Freshman Nathan Ayan was a double-medalist, taking fourth place in the Invitational Frosh men’s 800m, and sixth place in the Invitational Frosh men’s 1600m run. He ran PR times of 2:10.32 and 4:47.52, respectively.

Freshman Micaela Gistaro was also a double-medalist, taking second place honors in the Open Sophomore women’s 200m, with a PR time of 27.13s. She also finished fifth in the Invitational Frosh women’s 100m, with a time of 13.23s.

Sophomore Sean Groeneveld took second place honors in the Open Soph 200m Dash, with a PR time of 23.00. He also finished sixth in the Open Soph 100m Dash, with a time of 11.76s.

Other competitors included Reif Souder, who just missed out on a medal with a fourth place finish in the Soph 300m Hurdles. His time was 44.45s. Noah Voltin finished ninth in the Frosh Triple Jump, with a leap of 37’ 3.50”. Groeneveld, Souder, Anthony Jones and Mason Olsen teamed up to take a ninth place finish in the Open Sophomore 4x100m Relay, with a time of 46.82s. 

VOL. 113, NO. 17 - April 26, 2023