Menlo, Sacred Heart Prep rely on relay magic at CCS Track & Field Championships

It was the third middle-distance event of the day for Justin Pretre, who also reached the podium with a fifth-place finish in the boys’ 800 (1:55.68) and with a fourth-place finish in the boys’ 1600 (4:11.42).

“People have to understand, he’s Superman,” Menlo head coach Jorge Chen said.

Sacred Heart Prep senior Carter Shaw also starred in three events. The senior sprinter opened the day with a championship in the boys’ 4x100 relay, teaming with Tynan Macaluso, Luke Maxwell and James Mustarde to top the podium in 41.60 seconds. Shaw went on to take second place in the 200 (21.66) — just off his personal record from the CCS trials of 21.57 — and fourth place in the 100 (10.88).

Both Menlo (third place, 33 points) and SHP (eighth, 23) finished in the top 10 of the boys’ team scoring, but it was Serra that earned the best team finish among San Mateo County teams. Serra took second place with 47 points, despite earning just one individual title. Los Gatos won the team championships with 61 points.

Serra junior Luke Lewis earned the individual title in the shot put with a top throw of 54 feet, one-half inch. The Padres then locked up second place in the final race of the meet, taking third in the 4x400 relay with Jaxon Igtanloc, Dylan Joudieh, Jermaine Barrett and Parker Harrison recording a time of 3:21.53.

“We’re in a good spot,” Joudieh said. “We wanted to make it to state, and we did. We did exactly what we needed to do. Just hopefully get better in the state meet.”

No one, though, racked up the mileage that Justin Pretre did — who totaled nearly two full miles on the day, with a leg of the 4x800 relay, the 800 and the 1600. The senior is the first runner in Menlo history to take on such a workload. Only two runners from the 2019 CCS championship Menlo girls’ team have come close, with his older sister Kyra Pretre running the 800, the 1600 and the 4x400 relay; and her teammate Charlotte Tomkinson running the 400, the 800 and the 4x400.

Exciting finish in the historic 4x800

It was a historic first for the 4x800 relay, an event added statewide for the first time this season. Saturday’s running of the event marked the first 4x800 finals in CCS history.

While Justin Pretre set the tone for Menlo’s victory, it was Deffner running the anchor leg who finished the race to deliver the championship in style. Menlo was in first place when Deffner took the baton with two laps to go, but the senior had fallen to third place by the start of the bell lap behind Crystal’s Furious Clay and Bellarmine’s Tommy Snycerski. Running on the outside down the final stretch, Deffner was still in third but had a clear lane and a good feeling about chasing down the leaders.

“I wasn’t sure, but I knew I had a good shot,” Deffner said.

It worked to Deffner’s benefit that Clay and Snycerski got tangled on the inside lane. Clay was in the lead when Snycerski made a move toward the outside. It was an eerie sensation for Crystal’s senior standout Clay, who couldn’t see the two runners trying to pass him, but could hear the crowd reacting to it.

“All I could hear was the crowd getting way louder,” Clay said. “And that’s when I knew: ‘Oh wait, these guys are coming.’”

Deffner passed both runners with approximately 10 meters to go, while Clay held off Snycerski by fractions of a second; Crystal took second in 7:51.10, while Bellarmine took third in 7:51.33. The difference may have been Clay’s gutsy dive across the finish line. Logistically, though, the difference was certainly a bid to the CIF state meet for Crystal, as only the top two finishers advance to the CIF state meet this coming Friday and Saturday at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

“We’re just really good friends, me and their group,” Clay said. “So to be able to go to states with them, it’s a great feeling, because at [the cross-country state finals] we were one-two. So, we want to keep doing that.”

Deffner executed a precise and tactical race plan, running the anchor leg in a modified lineup from the Menlo team that won the 4x800 relay championship April 22 at the Oregon Relays in a meet-record 7:49.13. Justin Pretre ran the anchor that historic April day at Husky Stadium, but ran the first leg Saturday due to his heavy workload.

“I’ve been doing 800s a lot — so I’m used to that pain at the end of a race,” Deffner said. “As they passed me like they did with a lap to go, I just sit on them and use my experience and all that training ... so I just really had to trust myself there to wait that long, and it paid off.”

Serra’s hurdles ironman

Serra senior Peter Olson racked up 17 of his team’s 47 points by placing in three races, including second place in the boys’ 300 hurdles in 38.30, and third place in the 110 hurdles in 14.68. Both times are new personal records. Olson also opened the day in 4x100 relay, which finished sixth to earn Serra three points. He ran the 300 hurdles less than an hour later.

“I kind of like it because ... it kind of shakes the jitters out,” Olson said.

Harrison also ran three events, taking third place in the 400 with a new PR of 48.77. He also teamed on the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. The senior had a fourth event on the docket, qualifying in trials in the 200 with a new PR of 21.77, but he scratched the race in the finals.

The added strength helped Harrison to a brilliant third-place finish in the 400. Whipping around the final turn, Harrison was in seventh, but chased down four runners down the stretch.

“I wasn’t worried,” Harrison said. “I had a strong back kick. I knew I could catch him at the end.”

Sacred Heart Prep senior Cameron Johnson reached the podium in the 400 as well, taking fifth place in 49.34.

Menlo’s high-flying pole vaulter

Menlo senior William Floyd, with his long, curly locks of hair, certainly looks the part of a pole vaulter. The hair, and the CCS champion attached to it, were quite the spectacle in the boys’ pole vault finals.

Floyd took the title in a top height of 15 feet, 0 inches, topping Aragon senior Erik Dodge (second place, 14-6). Aragon junior Jarod Nunnemaker (fifth, 14-0) also reached the podium.

Floyd wrapped up the title at 15-0, the only vaulter to clear that height. But he opted to jump alone at 15-6 in an attempt to record the best height in CCS on the season. Only Dodge has done better in 2023 when, on April 11 in a dual meet at Aragon, he hit a PR of 15-1.

“I’m actually kind of used to [competing alone] because I’m the only pole vaulter in my league,” said Floyd, who competes in the West Bay Athletic League. “So, I was just raising the bar to see what I could do.”

Floyd’s best attempt at 15-6 was his last, as his legs cleared the crossbar. When his torso clipped it on the pass, he nearly got a favorable bounce as the bar initially seemed to settle on the upright supports, but the secondary bounce was enough to take it tumbling over the edges.

Castelli earns high jump crown

Notre Dame-Belmont senior Melanie Castelli earned the only individual championship among San Mateo County girls, claiming first place in the girls’ high jump with a new PR of 5-7. She topped Menlo junior Summer Young’s second-place jump of 5-5.

Aragon junior Pia Cho took second place in the girls’ long jump with a new PR of 18-4.

St. Ignatius freshman Ellie McCuskey-Hay took the long jump crown with an 18-9.5. McCuskey-Hay was quite the Superwoman of the meet, as the breakout freshman earned four individual titles, including the 100 (11.92), the 200 (32.76), and in the 4x100 relay (48.18).

No girls from county schools earned individual championships in the track events. Menlo-Atherton was the top county finish in the team element, taking sixth place. Los Altos won the girls’ team championship with 65 points, topping second-place Mitty, with 61.

M-A senior Tatum Olesen earned the county’s best podium finish in the field events, taking second place in the girls’ 800 with a new PR of 2:10.47, finishing just off the pace of champion Sabrina Zanetto of St. Francis in 2:10.35.

Girls’ results

In the girls’ 100, M-A freshman Kei’Niyah Talton took third (12.54); SHP senior Anna Sonsini fifth (12.64); and M-A junior Ellis De’Auri sixth (12.57).

In the 200, Talton again reached the podium, taking fourth (25.71); and in the 4x100 relay, Talton teamed with Jolene Chu, Sara Nordlund and De’Auri Ellis to take third (48.97).

In the 400, Burlingame junior Cora Haggarty took fifth (57.38), and Hillsdale senior Kira Wilmurt sixth (58.71); in the 3200, Crystal senior Kaiya Brooks took fourth (10:49.97); in the 100 hurdles, M-A sophomore Nordlund took fifth (15.28); in the 300 hurdles, Burlingame junior Avah Reichow took third (44.67); and in the 4x400, Burlingame’s Reichow, Haggarty, Elise Spenner and Lauren Gonzalez took fourth (4:01.58).

In the discus, Woodside junior Bridget Reynolds took sixth (109-6).

Boys’ results

Aragon was the county’s top public school placer in the team element, finishing 15th out fo 54 teams.

In the 1600, Menlo’s Hauser took fifth (4:15.02); in the long jump, M-A senior Sherrod Smith took fifth, 22-09; in the shot put, Carlmont senior Richard La Grill took third (51-01) and Serra sophomore Jay Leder took fourth (50-04.50); in the discus, Serra’s Lewis took sixth (141-05) with Terra Nova senior Frank Ward in fifth (143-0).