PAL's track and field future looks bright

The second day of the Peninsula Athletic League track and field championships was mostly used to determine Wednesday's finals at College of San Mateo, but there were six varsity champions crowned Monday. While the Central Coast Section and state championship meets are still to be decided, those in attendance got to see the future in those five of the six events as they were won by non-seniors. While the top-six finishers medal for PAL purposes, only the top five advance to CCS May 28 at Gilroy High School. The only senior to win Monday was Hillsdale's Quinta Ekong in the girls' discus, as she out-distanced second place Mele Langi, 124 feet, 11 inches to 121-6. The girls' long jump and pole vault winners were both juniors, the girls' and boys' 3,200 winners were both sophomores, while the boys' triple jump winner is merely a freshman. The boys' 3,200-meter race was the closest of the day -- be it a final or a semifinal. Half Moon Bay's Mitch Martin, a sophomore, held off Woodside's Kyle Feuerheim over the final meters to capture the race in a time of 9 minutes, 50.40 seconds. He edged Feuerheim by eight one-hundredths of a second. "I didn't hear anything," Martin said as Feuerheim closed on him. "I was a little nervous for a second, but then I really kicked it in." The top six runners were tightly packed for most of the eight-lap race. On the final lap, after the first turn, Martin burst from the pack and left everybody behind with about 300 meters to go. Feuerheim got on Martin's right shoulder down the homestretch, but didn't have enough to pass Martin. "I was a little uneasy the first few laps," Martin said. "I was saving it up for the first turn of the last lap." Half Moon Bay had a chance to sweep the 3,200 race as sentimental choice Sammy Hamilton was the favorite to win on the girls' side. But Aragon sophomore Lauren Croshaw spoiled it. She sat off Hamilton's shoulder for the first six laps before blowing by the Half Moon Bay senior to win by nearly 14 seconds. "It's weird (to win a PAL championship). I was so nervous," said Croshaw, who burst on the scene with a top-four finish at the PAL cross country championships in November. She passed Hamilton with ease and never looked to be in trouble. The pain was evident on Hamilton's face, however, as she strained to keep up. "Sammy and I had been racing against each other so many times. She's like a fighter," Croshaw said. "I always felt she was coming to come up and pass me." The girls' long jump was every bit as close as the boys' 3,200 race, with one inch separating the top three finishers. Burlingame junior Madison Mason took home the championship with a jump of 15 feet, 4 inches, which was half an inch better than Aragon's Nicole Cannuli, who was a half inch in front of Menlo-Atherton's Tabetha Willems. They were easily the three best jumpers in the field, as the fourth-place finisher was six inches off the mark set by Mason. The girls' pole vault was also hotly contested, but it was Carlmont's Jorja Flynn that earned the PAL title. She, along with teammates Casey Schade and Monique Lam, all cleared 9 feet, 2 inches, but Flynn earned the title with less misses. In the boys' triple jump, Westmoor freshman Errol Fernandez claimed the PAL title with a jump of 41 feet, 3 3/4 inches, to edge teammate Clark Encarnacion by half an inch. "It's the best (mark) I got this season," said Fernandez, who has improved his distance by about six inches in his first season ever of triple jumping. Fernandez hit the mark on his second-to-last jump. He wasn't sure his mark would stand because Encarnacion was on his heels the entire day. But once Fernandez's coach told him to go for it, he did. "(I hit the mark) after my coach said, 'Errol, let's go crazy,'" Fernandez said. "I felt great."