By Leonard COUTIN

The Pacific League track and field prelims, hosted by Arcadia High School, took place on the school’s newly surfaced nine lane all-weather track last Friday. Starting mid afternoon, the athletes endured scorching temperatures as they battled for position to make the finals that will be held at Arcadia tomorrow, Friday, May 9. Field events will start at 5 p.m. and running is at 6 p.m.

“The only events that were finals this past Friday were the frosh/soph field events and the frosh/soph 3200s. Finals in most events are the top nine people, although in the 800 and the 1600 we take 12,” explained Arcadia coach Chris Schultz and CV coach Mark Evans. “As for moving to CIF, the winners of each event move to CIF prelims automatically. Second and third place finishers that meet a minimum standard will also advance to CIF prelims.

“If a person is fourth place or lower and meets an at-large standard, they may also advance. It is the same for running and field events and this is at the varsity level only. Varsity field events are at League finals.”

The prelims lasted over seven hours with three heats in each event, concluding with many outstanding times and performances by the Falcons.

“We are very pleased with how everyone did,” said Evans. “[There were] lots of great performances, [despite the] heat of the day. There were some great competitive efforts.”

Senior Gabe Collison took the lead early in his heat, striking a time of 4:22.24 in the 1600m. Apache Philip Roche (4:22.32) was aided by his teammate Josue Gonzalez (4:29.78). Falcon Nick Beatty reached an outstanding mark (4:24.39). Temperatures seemed to slow down Falcon Matt Manalo (4:37.30).

For the girls, teammates Megan Melnyk (5:30.96) and Erika Johnson (5:31.04) came behind Apache Roni Yamane who posted the fastest time (5:23.83) in the 1600m.

CV runner Haley Witzeman (5:39.50) was on the heels of Arcadia’s Laura Guidolin (5:31.71) who produced the second fastest time in their heat. In women’s 100 hurdles, Sammie Phinney posted a time of 16:09 to win her heat and was listed third with Sarah Lapides (17.24) who was fifth going into the finals.

In the boys’ 110H, CV runners Wesley Choi (17.09) rated eighth, Kenny Kang (17:15) took ninth and Kenny Kang placed 10th (17:29).

Kayleigh Carrillo posted the fastest time of the day in the 400m (58.84) with teammate Courtney Iannello (1:02.29) rated fifth. Arcadia posted two tough competitors in this event, Kyra White (59:21) and Rachel Wiggins (59:01), too.

Jordan Springfield is now rated ninth in the 100m (13.72). Beatty posted the second fastest time in the 800m (1:57.58) with Apache Roche running the fastest (1:55.29). Manalo qualified with an excellent time (1:58.51). Melnyk claimed the fastest 800m time (2:21.05) with teammate Erika Johnson (2:25.73) coming in fourth, Rebecca Mencia (3:34.80) placing ninth and Witzeman (3:34.86) coming in 10th.

CV qualified three contenders in the girls’ 300H: Phinney (48:49) clocked the fourth fastest time, Grace Keller (48.95) took fifth and Lapides (49.53) placed sixth. Kang had the fastest time of the day in the 300HH (42.61) with teammate Kyler Chin (42.79) taking fifth.

Carrillo ran first in her heat in the 200m (25.96) with Arcadia’s Kyra White (25.27) and Sarah Troescher (25.62) placing first and second with the best times of the day. The varsity field will be hosted at the finals.

         The CV Falcon frosh/soph celebrated many outstanding races at their season finale meet of the year on Friday. Kyle Dickinson, who had two strong seasons, started to find his place on the team. Running three events each meet has made him a responsible athlete to have around. Running his last 1600m, Dickinson placed third (4:46.22). Teammate Robert McNelis placed 10th (4:46.70) and is considered to be a fine asset to the distance team. Elizabeth Filipian placed first(17:68) in the 100H. Allison Kwan (19.80) took fourth, Amy Giboney (19:89) placed fifth, and Jennifer Saengsri (20.82) placed seventh.           In the boys’ 110H, Shawn Grinnell (18:60) placed third with brother Jeremy Grinnell taking fourth (18:92). Brianna Domingo, who has had many fine performances this season, took the win (13.61) in her heat in the 100m and placed second overall. Kelly Lim (13:89) took fourth, Jestena Galvan placed fifth (13.94)and Susanne Carpenter (14.00) took sixth.

Hye Kwang Kim placed third in the boys’ 100m (11.6). In the 800m, Armin Cardenas, who helped his distance relay team win at the Mt. SAC relays, won (2:08.49) with teammates Dickinson (2:12.67) placing third and John Jae Lee (2:12.08) taking seventh.

Elizabeth Filipian placed fourth in the 300H (52.36); Allison Kwan took fifth (53.44) and Amy Giboney placed eighth (55.62).

Shawn Grinnell placed third (44.75) in the 300H and Jeremy Grinnell took fourth (45.45).

In the 200m, Lim placed third (28.29). Kwang Kim ran 23.98 placing third in the 200m dash.

In the girls’ 3200m race, Samantha Bernardo ran 12:31.44 to take seventh and teammate Annie Myers (12:44.95) took ninth.

In the boys’ 3200m McNelis placed 10^th (10:30.02).

Saengsri jumped 14-01.00 to take fourth.

The long jump winners were Kevin Jeong (18-02), fourth; Jonathan Lee (17-07), seventh; and Josh Kong (16-11), 11th.

Jessy Shelton placed eighthin the triple jump (27-7) and teammate Saengsri followed ninth  (27-03).

Jonathan Lee placed sixth in the triple jump and teammate Austin Lee placed ninth (36-01).

In the high jump, Zechariah Gonzalez took second (5-06), Arin Nahabtian nabbed third (5-6), John Lapides took fourth (5-04) and Journey Shank placed fifth (5-00).

For the girls’ pole vault, Sydney Pontius took second place (7-00), and Sylvia Giron grabbed third (6-06).

Logan Foote placed fifth in the boys’ pole vault (9-06) with Tim Langely placing eighth (9-00) with Austin White (9-00).

Nick Norkus placed ninth in the shot put with a throw of 36-3. Kelly Choi threw 64-00 to take 11^th in the discus. Arthur Akopyan placed third in the discus with a throw of 102-07.

  Leonard Coutin