12th Annual Mt. Pleasant Relays
@ Los Gatos HS
Overcast, 55 degrees, head wind in all events.
From Daniel Cruz
The 12th Annual Mt. Pleasant Relays provided a splendid show for track fans this past weekend at Los Gatos High School. The meet held under cloudy skies and blustery conditions (no aiding wind here as the up-coming storm was from the South) which did not help vaulters and jumpers, worked wonders for the discus as Sean Shields of Arroyo Grande popped 1808 ½. He started the meet with another state leading throw of 605½ while his teammate, John Howard also had a very good toss of 535 ½. Arroyo Grande came away the Boys team champion, just nipping James Logan by two points, 104-102. The Lady Colts however outdistanced Arroyo Grande on the womens side 93 to 81 with Logan winning the combined title 195-185.
A great battle was expected in the dashes and jumps as a very solid St. Marys of Berkeley squad was also in town. After being bested by St. Marys in the 4 x 100 earlier in the day, 42.1 to 42.8, the Colts came back to hold off SMs in the 4 x 220 as Martin Boston (Grandson to Olympic great Ralph Boston) ran a great anchor leg for the win with a fine 1:31.2 (yards). St.Marys ran the same time. Los Gatos came away with wins in the 4 x 800 and 4 x mile with fine early season times of 8:18.9 and 18:50.9. Matt Bates anchored for the Wildcats with a 4:29 split in the 4 x mile. St. Marys came away with wins in both hurdle relays and the TJ relay but Bellarmine swiped the LJ relay with an event leading jump by Ethan Clark (Bells) 219 and help from teammate Chaka Cofie (211½). Asokah Mohammed tripled 4610 and teammate Salomon Welch bounded 456½, while junior Martin Boston improved his seasonal best with a 450 jump. St. Marys came away with a new meet record in the TJ relay (1798). Arroyo Grande came away with wins in the Shot, Discus, Vault, High jump and 4 x 2 mile relays as Russ Martin (Los Gatos) soloed 9:37.0 for 2 miles to capture first place in the 4 x 2-mile relay. Shields besting the field in both the shot and discus, Paul Lim (Riordan) having the best vault of the day (136) Ryan Zimmerman of AG bested all High Jumpers with a fine 66.
On the Girls side track host Los Gatos won the 4 x 800 and 4 x mile as expected, while Logan grabbed the 4 x 100, 4 x 200, 4 x 400, 300 shuttles (new meet record, 3:11.6), 2nd in the 4 x 880, vault, TJ and Shot and 3rd in the 4 x 2-mile relay. Carondelet captured the 4 x 2-mile followed closely by St. Ignatius. SI also won the High Jump relay as three Wildcats cleared 54 (Grimaldi, Keane, and Grimes). Arroyo Grande grabbed wins in the Shot, Discus and vault, setting a meet record in the latter event with an aggregate mark of 346. AG totaled 1433½ in the shot and 3668½ in the discus with Rachel Viau (AG) clearing 116 in the vault, Kamaiya Warren (SM) having the best toss in the discus with an excellent 1502 throw. Laveitra Sutton (JL) won the TJ with a 3610½ and Danielle Stokes of St. Marys leaped 174½.
James Logans weight man relay smoked a 45.9 to set a new meet record and Arroyo Grandes womens weight relay ran 60.1.