PAL track champs crowned

The Lady Bears, in repeating as champs in the girls’ meet, posted 101 points, topping Carlmont and Mills who tied for second with 49 points apiece. Fourth-place Half Moon Bay was right behind with 48, while fifth-place Aragon finished with 41.

“Back-to-back — so it was fun,” said M-A junior Maggie Hall, who held the Bears start the day with a first-place finish in the girls’ 4x100 meter relay. “Now we’re excited for CCS.”

The Gentleman Cherokees were steeped in a lot more drama. Sequoia claimed the title in the boys’ meet by the slimmest of margins, scoring 84 team points, edging out second-place Menlo-Atherton’s 83 points. Third-place Carlmont finished with 76, fouth-place Mills with 64 1/3, fifth-place Westmoor with 35 1/3 and sixth-place Half Moon Bay with 33 1/3.

While Sequoia senior Ryan Reed earned two individual sprinting titles in the boys’ 100 and 200, he finished the day with an unnerving anchor leg in the boys’ 4x400. The team scoring was so close going into the day’s final event, Reed knew he had little margin for error. And when the Cherokees finished fourth in the race, with Reed getting overtaken by third-place Half Moon Bay on the final lap, the senior immediately feared the worst.

“Half Moon Bay sniped me at the end and beat me by five meters,” Reed said. “So, I was devastated. I thought I had lost the meet.”

That’s when Carlmont senior Ryan Wilson came to the rescue. The Scots’ 4x400 team had already enjoyed a banner day. Senior Tanner Anderson won the individual title in the boys’ 400 (50.03 seconds), junior Justin Tsu won the title in the 3,200 (9 minutes, 49.22 seconds) and Wilson claimed titles in the 800 (1:58.08) and 1,600 (4:24.64), making it a clean sweep for Carlmont in the four individual running disciplines.

But it was Carlmont’s first-place finish in the boys’ 4x400 relay that was the deciding factor in Sequoia winning the team championship, as Wilson overtook M-A on the final lap. Taking the baton with a 25-meter deficit, Wilson chased down the lead by the final turn and gave the Scots the win by over two seconds.

“I just knew I had to give it all for my team,” Wilson said. “I just had to run the hardest I could so we’d have a chance to share the title.”

The second-place finish prevented M-A senior Nick Anderson from earning his third gold medal of the day. He took first with big wins in the 110 hurdles (14.63) and the long jump (22-2.25), and also took second the 100 (11.15). His relay teammate, senior Karl Zahlhaas, who also earned a second-place finish in the 1,600 (4:26.74), was congratulatory to Sequoia on the team win.

“I was happy for Sequoia,” Zahlhaas said.

Fly like an Eagle

Last season, M-A junior Jessica Eagle finished third and fifth place, respectively, in the girls’ 100 and 200. This year, she earned gold in both.

Eagle was one of the many highlights throughout the Lady Bears’ team victory, topping Cap senior Marli Bonney (12.29) in the 100 with a 12.14, and in the 200 with a time of 25.20. The girls’ 200 was quite a showing for the Bears, as Eagle out-leaned her fellow M-A junior, Hall (25.22) by two one-hundredths of a second.

It’s a familiar sight for those in the M-A ranks, as the two spar with each other in sprint practice every day.

“She’s really good at the end of her race, and I’m good at the beginning,” Eagle said. “So, she was slowly catching up. And I just leaned her out.”

The biggest change for Eagle this season was dropping her favorite discipline, pole vault. Growing up in Los Angeles, she discovered track and field through pole vaulting, and even trained at UCLA for a time. This year, however, she decided to focus on sprinting.

“When [Eagle] gave up everything else, that’s when she blossomed into what she is today,” Hall said.

HMB’s hurdle thriller

While Eagle and Hall enjoyed one of the most exciting finishes of the day, the photo finish in the boys’ 300 hurdles was even better. Half Moon Bay senior Sean Fitzgerald earned gold with a time of 39.71, just ahead of San Mateo senior Jake Jeffries’s time of 39.72.

Jeffries tackled the last hurdle with a slight lead. But Fitzgerald had something left in the tank.

“He started on the outside,” Fitzgerald said, “and that last hurdle, I really had to push. My legs were starting to lock up, but I knew if I got over that hurdle I was going to catch him. … I just leaned really hard and was hoping I got it. That was the closest and most fun race I’ve ever run, for sure.”

Still, it was a special finish for both competitors. Not only was it the first sub 40-second run for each, for Jeffries it marked a new school record in the event. The San Mateo record previous belonged to Jesse Wong, who actually coached Jeffries last season. And to steep the result in even more mystique, the silver medal marked the end of an injury-plagued year for the three-sport athlete Jeffries, who missed time in both football and basketball prior to track season.

Cap’s Bonney jumps to gold

At 5-2, 105 pounds, Capuchino senior Marli Bonney isn’t a prototypical long jumper. In fact, when she advances to University of San Francisco next year, she will do so strictly as a sprinter. Her performance Saturday though has her finishing her jumping career in style.

Bonney hadn’t jumped in three weeks, she said, but exploded to a first-place distance of 16-feet even to take first place in the girls’ long jump, topping San Mateo senior Sabrina Lin’s 15-11.

“The past few years, I haven’t put too much effort in to it,” Bonney said. “With the three-week break, I didn’t know how I was going to do. But I don’t think I’m going to do that in college. So, I was hoping to finish strong here at the end of my season.”

In addition taking second place in the 100, Bonney also took third in the 200 (25.78). Saturday’s long jump marks the second gold medal of her varsity career. Last season, she took first place in the 100.

“She’s done a great job,” Cap head coach Mike Trimble said. “She’s put Capuchino on the map.”

Girls’ results

Other girls’ gold medalists: in the 1,600, HMB sophomore Claire Yerby (4:24.64); the 100 hurdles, Hillsdale junior Elise Raphael (16.59); in the 400, M-A freshman Malia Latu (58.48); in the 800, HMB sophomore Kendall Mansukhani (2:17.99); in the 300 hurdles, HMB senior Sophia Valdez (48.22); in the 3,200, Calrmont sophomore Kaimei Gescuk (11:46.22); in th3 4x400 relay, HMB (4:08.03); in the pole vault, Sequoia junior Gianna Colombo (34-5); in the discus, Terra Nova junior Carly Watts (143-09); in the high jump, Woodside freshman Katherine Meade, 5-02; and in the pole vault, Aragon senior Juliet Bost (10-01).

Boys’ results

Other boys’ gold medalists: in the high jump, Sequoia junior John Utecht (5-10); in the triple jump, Utecht (42-03); in the discus, Mills senior Sione Langi (146-10); in the shot put, Langi (51-08); and in the pole vault, Sequoia sophomore John Horan (13-01.5).