Palo Alto junior Eli Givens will have the opportunity to defend his title in the boys’ 100 meters and the Gunn girls will take a shot at defending their team title. For everyone else, they’ll be competing for a top-three finish at the Central Coast Section Track and Field Championships on Friday.
Givens was one of nine local boys who qualified for the championships following Saturday’s section semifinals at San Jose City College, site of the finals. He qualified in the 100 (10.97) and 200 (21.99) — winning his heats in both races — in addition to finishing fourth in the long jump (21-3 1/2 and running a leg on the Vikings’ 1,600 relay team that clocked a season best of 3:24.69 while taking second.
Charlie Badger Dami Bolarinwa, Kent Slaney and Givens made up the 4×400 quartet that now ranks third in the section. Bolarinwa also advanced in the 400 with a personal best of 50.79 earning him sixth overall.
“It was a great day,” said Paly coach Kelsey Feeley. “Not always in the ways that we expected, but everybody gets to race again Friday at the CCS finals.”
The Paly girls will send their 400 and 1,600 relay teams plus Julia Asin in the 400, Catherine Yu in the 300 hurdles and Anna Dukovic in the long jump.
The 400 relay team of sophomore Marion Sellier, senior Catherine Yu, senior Anna Dukovic and senior Julia Asin ran 49.08 to grab the eighth and final qualifying spot. In the 1,600 relay, Paly ran 4:04.48 with Titi Bolarinwa, freshman Adee Newman, Yu and Asin finishing eighth.
Asin also qualified in the 400 with a 59.34, Yu advanced in the 300 hurdles with a personal best of 46.42 and Dukovic added the long jump to her schedule with a 17-0 3/4 leap.
The Gunn girls, meanwhile, should be among the team leaders on Friday after solid efforts at the semifinals.
Junior Maya Miklos provided the only local victory with her CCS-leading time of 43.89 to win the 300 hurdles. She also clocked 15.34 to qualify third in the 100 hurdles.
Fellow junior Gillian Meeks also advanced in two events as she finished second in the 1,600 in 5:01.44 and fifth in the 3,200 in 10:55.59. Gunn junior Amy Watt also advanced, with a 16-0 3/4 mark in the long jump.
Other qualifiers for the CCS finals included:
For the girls, Menlo School senior Lizzie Lacy finished fourth in the 3,200 in 10:55.40 to move on. Menlo-Atherton junior Annalisa Crowe was seventh in the 800 in 2:14.99 and teammate Kathryn Mohr advanced in the pole vault with a clearance of 11 feet. Sacred Heart Prep’s Ma’ata Makoni will compete in both the discus (110-10) and shot put (a school record of 37-4).
For the boys, Menlo-Atherton senior Adam Scandlyn missed in the 1,600 but qualified in the 800 with a personal best of 1:56.79 (No. 5 in school history) in perhaps the most competitive event for the boys as the top 12 qualifiers all were under 1:57.00.
Sacred Heart Prep senior Garrett Mack also made it in the 800 with a personal best and school record of 1:56.95. SHP teammate Daniel Hill advanced in the 3,200 with a 9:31.74 clocking while the Gators’ Connor Cody and Griffin Kraemer made it in the triple jump with marks of 41-8 and 41-4 1/2, respectively.
Menlo-Atherton’s Marquise Reed leaped 21-5 to finish third in the long jump, a six-inch personal best.