The 2019 Metro Conference varsity track and field championship meet is scheduled Thursday, May 2, at Otay Ranch High School. Student-athletes will compete for top marks in the Mesa League and South Bay League.
Local high school track fans got a preview of things to come at last Saturday’s Mustang Relays at Otay Ranch High School. Ten teams competed this year as the event makes headway after a downturn last year.
“The meet is getting back to where it was,” Otay Ranch coach Julian Valdez said. “We hope to be back up to two divisions next year.”
Last weekend’s meet also included a unified sports division for non-able bodied student-athletes. Both the San Diego Section and California state championship meets have spotlighted non-able bodied events in recent years, including wheelchair races.
“We wanted to include the unified student in our meet – we’re one of the first invitational meets to do that,” Valdez said.
Valerie Ruiz serves as the Sweetwater Union High School District’s director for unified sports. Twelve athletes from three schools — Southwest, Sweetwater and Olympian high schools — participated in the 4×100 relay and shot put events last weekend at the Mustang Relays.
Ruiz said the unified sports athletes were excited to participate in a large meet alongside able-bodied athletes.
“They were excited to be a part of a regular meet,” Ruiz said. “They were excited to get exposure with their teammates from school, to get medals and warm up with everyone was very motivational.”
The San Diego unified track and field championship meet is scheduled May 4 at Otay Ranch High School. Ruiz said as many as 18 schools and 200 students may participate in the event.
Top teams
The top three teams in both the boys and girls division received trophies.
Otay Ranch won the boys team title with 81 points, followed by Central Union with 55 points and Bonita Vista with 43 points.
Eastlake won the girls team title with 91 points, followed by Otay Ranch with 75 points and Point Loma with 37 points.
Otay Ranch defeated visiting Bonita Vista, 81-55, in Mesa League dual meet competition on Wednesday to win the regular season boys title while Eastlake’s girls team was in position to wrap up the league dual meet title with a win over visiting Chula Vista on Thursday.
Eastlake is fielding one of its strongest teams in a decade and rates to be a contender for the Division I team title at the upcoming San Diego Section championship meet May 18 at Mt. Carmel High School.
Olympian’s girls team won last year’s Division I team championship, though in belated fashion due to a scoring error.
The Titan ladies certainly put their best foot forward at last Saturday’s gathering by claiming first-place finishes in seven of the 10 running events while tacking on two first-place finishes in field events.
Otay Ranch’s boys squad captured first-place finishes in six running events.
“Our sprint team was explosive,” Valdez said.
Top marks
The Mustang Relays feature several standalone events, including the invitational 1500-meter run, 300 hurdles and 300 dash.
Bonita Vista senior Jonathan Kelly won the boys 1500 in 4:14.05 — just a second faster than Central junior Luis Sandoval (4:15.08). Bonita Vista senior Mario Barone finished third in 4:18.59.
Eastlake senior Luz Mercado won the girls 1500 in 4:54.25, followed by Eastlake freshman Tatum Sherard in 5:09.48. Otay Ranch junior Cristina Carrillo finished third in 5:13.01.
Otay Ranch junior Edric Picatoste won the boys 300 dash in 36.37, followed by Central Union senior Joseph Castillo in 37.41 in second place and Bonita Vista senior Sean Bianes in 37.48 in third place.
“You’ve got to give it 100 percent throughout the race, maintain form and breathing,” explained Picatoste in noting the differences in race strategy from the 200 and 400 dashes.
Otay Ranch freshman Jazmine Gipson won the girls 300 dash in 43.04, followed by Sweetwater junior Stephanie Corona in 44.77 in second place and Central Union senior Guadalupe Garcia in 45.11 in third place.
The 300 dash is a nationally-sanctioned event, with all the participants at this year’s Mustang Relays entering their name on the nationwide leaderboard.
Otay Ranch junior Nathan Mestre finished with the top time in the boys 300 intermediate hurdles in 41.17 while Hilltop senior Esteban Farias was second in 42.64. Eastlake senior Myles Hendricks finished third in 43.22.
“I’m definitely very proud of myself,” said Mestre, who is in his second year on the varsity team. “I’m glad I can help our team; I’m glad I can represent my school.”
Hilltop freshman Ana Zamitiz won the girls 300 hurdles in 51.02 while Otay Ranch freshman Adrienne Gaines-Ramos was second in 51.12. Eastlake freshman Selena Wimbish finished third in 52.02.
“My strategy was just to sprint and get the lead at the last gate,” Zamitiz said.
That’s exactly what happened as the Hilltop hurdler passed the Otay Ranch runner at the finish line.
Otay Ranch won the boys 4×100 relay in 43.85 while Eastlake won the girls 4×100 relay in 50.33.
Otay Ranch won the boys 4×200 relay in 1:33.25 while Eastlake won the girls 4×200 relay in 1:48.35.
The Otay Ranch 4×200 unit included Sebastian Avila, Picatoste, Dylan Zolezzi and Albert Nguyen while Eastlake’s 4×200 relay unit included Blanca McCormick, Mia Wax, Tori Inumerable and Kalah Bateman.
Central Union won the meet-concluding 4×400 relay in 3:31.68 while Eastlake won the girls 4×400 relay in 4:08.24.
The Eastlake unit of both Mercado sisters, McCormick and Sarah Davis set a school record in the event at 3:59.13 while competing at the elite Arcadia Invitational the weekend of April 5-6. The Titan quartet finished eighth out of 33 teams.
“We tried to break the school record last year but we couldn’t,” Luz Mercado explained. “We have the same team as last year and were able to pull it off this year. It felt great to do it against such a high level of competition there.”
Eastlake finished runner-up in the boys 4×400 relay in 3:32.57, followed by Otay Ranch in 3:38.34.
The Otay Ranch foursome of Angelo Javier, Johan Gijon, Nate Perry and Grant Bice won the 4×800 relay in 8:27.11 while the Eastlake unit of Luz Mercado, Sherard, Lake Merrifield and Katherine Robinson won the girls 4×800 relay in 10:11.53.
The sprint medley relay consists of two legs of 100 meters, one leg of 200 meters and one leg of 400 meters.
Eastlake’s McCormick, Malia Gementera, Bateman and Ana Mercado teamed up to win the girls race in 1:49.74. Brawley won the boys race in 1:37.68.
The distance medley relay is more grueling. It consists of an opening leg of 1200 meters (three laps), a second leg of 400 meters (one lap), a third leg of 800 meters (two laps) and a final leg of 1600 meters (four laps).
Eastlake won the girls race in 13:44.51, followed by Otay Ranch in second place in 13:51.98 and Calexico in third place in 14:08.00.
The winning foursome included Sherard (1200), Wimbish (400), Merrifield (800) and Robinson (1600).
Otay Ranch won the boys race in 10:59.08 to edge runner-up Bonita Vista (11:03.77). Point Loma finished third in 11:07.98 while Hilltop was fourth in 11:36.01.
The Otay Ranch quartet included Colby Parise (1200), Andre Sison (400), Perry (800) and Justin Mulvany (1200).
Mulvany took the lead at the beginning of his third lap while running a 4:25 split. “It was a good team effort,” the Mustang senior said. “There was quite a bit of competition in the race.”
Mulvany finished 25th in the boys 3200 event at the Arcadia Invitational in a personal record time of 9:23.65. Thompson Valley (Loveland, Colo.) junior Dylan Shubert won the rated race in 9:12.16.
“I was pretty excited,” Mulvany said of recording the PR at the Arcadia Invitational. “The whole season I was somewhat worried I had plateaued since my sophomore year.”
Mulvany entered the week ranked fourth among section runners in the distance. Mission Hills senior Jonathan Velasco leads the section with a 9:07.27 time, followed by La Costa Canyon junior Caleb Niednagel in 9:09.06 and Crawford senior Nader Ali in 9:20.92.
“I feel I need to be around 9:20 if I want to make it to state. But right now I have shin splints and I’ve been running through them.”
The meet opened with the 4×110 (boys) and 4×100 (girls) shuttle hurdles.
Otay Ranch won the boys event in 1:05.27, followed by Eastlake in second place in 1:08.00 and Sweetwater in third place in 1:09.69.
Point Loma won the girls event in 1:09.57. Eastlake finished second in 1:09.81 while Otay Ranch was third in 1:14.38.
Field events
Bonita Vista sophomore Kayla Reynante finished first among individuals in the girls triple jump (33-5.5) and second in the long jump (15-3.5) while Eastlake freshman Asja Mulic finished second in both the girls shot put (30-8) and discus throw (87-6).
Otay Ranch senior Kaylee Hewat Lanier took top honors in the girls shot put (34-5) while Calexico sophomore Mariana Ledesma had the top mark in the girls discus throw (97-0).
Eastlake’s Ana Mercado recorded the winning height of 5-0 in the girls high jump, a mark matched by Eastlake freshman Macaria Moore-Bastide.
Eastlake seniors Natalia Cortes and Renna Cozza went 1-2 in the girls pole vault by clearing 10-0 and 9-0, respectively.
Point Loma senior Kaya Neiner recorded the top long jump mark of 15-7.25.
Bonita Vista junior Ayodeli Okendeji captured first place in the boys shot put with a mark of 45-5 while finishing sixth in the discus throw with a mark of 118-0.
Eastlake junior Carson Lively took top individual honors in the boys discus throw with a mark of 139-7, followed by Sweetwater junior Cesar Salazar (134-6). Salazar finished third in the shot put at 40-8.
Eastlake senior Marcus Casillas won top honors in the boys pole vault by clearing 12-0. Otay Ranch junior Jordan Rodriguez, Point Loma’s James Bell and Otay Ranch’s Abel Mbawa all cleared 11-6.
Point Loma junior Travis Lewis and Otay Ranch’s Elijah Johnson both cleared 6-4 in the boys high jump.
Bonita Vista senior Zion Bakari-Scott finished with the second best boys triple jump mark of 41-2.5 while placing third in the long jump at 20-4.
Central Union’s Deandre Smith turned in the top mark of 21-0 in the long jump while Point Loma junior Creed Picar recorded the top mark of 41-7 in the triple jump.
Mustang Relays
Point Standings
Boys Teams
1. Otay Ranch 81
2. Central Union 55
3. Bonita Vista 43
4. Eastlake 37
5. Hilltop 21
6. Point Loma 20
7. Brawley 16
8. (tie) Sweetwater 14
8. (tie) Calexico 14
10. Mar Vista 9
Girls Teams
1. Eastlake 91
2. Otay Ranch 75
3. Point Loma 37
4. Calexico 32
5. Mar Vista 20
6. Sweetwater 17
7. Central Union 16
8. Bonita Vista 13
9. Hilltop 9
10. Brawley 2
