By Leonard COUTIN

The Falcons track and field team faced the Pacific League’s strongest opponent last Thursday as Arcadia hosted the last dual meet of the year before the League prelims next week. Going into the meet, CVHS Head Coach Mark Evans knew it was going to be a tough go in all the divisions.
“Arcadia is very strong team,” he said. “They have depth in all events.”

The Falcons worked aggressively against the Apaches scoring four gold wins and one successful sweep in 300H events. Kenny Kang took second in the 110H (16.31) and led his teammates to the only sweep of the day. Running in the 300H (41.20), both Grinnell brothers added valuable points as well. Jeremy Grinnell placed second (42.45) and Shawn Grinnell followed in third (42.47). Shawn captured third place in the 110H (16.91) as well.

Arthur Akopyan captured the only dual gold wins for the Falcons in the shot put (48-2.5) and in the discus with a throw of 123-07. Teammate Emin Issaghoulian placed second in the discus (112-00).

In the pole vault, Falcon Dashel Dupuy won (12-06), followed by a tie for second. Jacob Poole and Apache Sean Le both cleared 11-00. Austin White took fourth at the same height but with greater misses. In the high jump, John Lapides won second jumping 5–8. Silas FitzGerald took a key second in the 1600m against state champion Phillip Rocha (4:31.03). The two CV seniors, Jason Crosthwaite and Silas FitzGerald took second (2:04.40) and third (2:04.62) in the 800m against Apache junior runner Dominic Gonzalez who won (2:01.40). Falcon Manav Vats ran third in the 3200m (9:45.20) behind Apache Phillip Rocha who had his second win of the day running 9:35.96 followed by teammate Christopher Chen who captured second (9:39.12). CV Kyle D’Ambrosio took third in the 400m (54.07) with the winning time by Apache Yeab Guracha (51.67). Falcon Joo Young Jeong took third in the long jump (17-10) and fourth in the triple jump (35-11.50).

Finals score 96 Arcadia to CV 40. The Falcon girls kept the Apaches alert during the meet. Key dual victories came from middle distance senior Megan Melnyk who won both the 1600m (5:04.34) and 800m (2:25.38). Sammie Phinney took the win in the 100H (15.54) and 300H (48.43). Alisa Shinn performed well and captured a first in the shot put (34-07) and second in the discus (93-06) behind Apache Loreny Valdez who threw 101-07. Emmie Walker sailed threw her winning jump of 5-5 making this her personal best jump of the year. Teammate Grace Keller took third  in the high jump (4-10). Elizabeth Filipian placed second in the 100H (16.70) and fourth in 300H (51.68) behind teammate Grace Keller (50.65).

CV’s Claire Schlueter took second in the 100m behind Apache Sarah Troescher (12.1). Schlueter also placed third in the long jump (15-06) and second in the triple jump (31-09). Courtney Iannello took fourth in the 400m (1:02.17) and third in the 200m (28.04). Grace McAuley placed fourth in the 800m (2:34.83). Long distance runner Rebecca Mencia captured third place in the 3200m (11:52.23) behind Apaches winner Laura Guidolin (11:34) and teammate Holly Lung (11:40.30).

Final score Arcadia 84 to CV 52.

Looking over the results at the end of the meet Coach Evans said, “We competed well. We had some good performances. We are peaking at the right time.”

The Falcons are looking ahead to the Pacific League prelims hosted by Arcadia on May 1 starting early in the afternoon.

  Leonard Coutin