The Justin-Siena High School track and field teams completed their Marin County Athletic League dual-meet schedule with several personal records against visiting Marin Catholic on Friday at Dodd Stadium.
The Braves’ last home meet meant it was Senior Day, and seniors Annabelle Huffman, Maverick Hall, Brad Soldati, Grant Smith, Dylan Roos, Karun Dhillon, James Siy, Tony Borgess, Michael Deely, Alec Garcia, Griffin Houtary and Jonathan Fidler were all introduced beforehand.
The varsity boys downed the Wildcats, 62-50, and Chris Bozzini, Houtary, Will Yates and Adrian Jinbo set the tone by winning the 4x100-meter relay in a season-best 44.09 seconds in the first event.
The same four also won a number of individual events.
Yates captured the 110 high hurdles (18.81 seconds) and 300 intermediate hurdles (44.96), while Jinbo sprinted to wins in the 100 (11.34) and 200 (23.17). Bozzini claimed the 400 meters (52.59), and Houtary — in his first stab at the event all season — took the 800 meters (2:03.28) by 30 meters.
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Braves head coach Brandon LaRocco said Jinbo, just a freshman, ranks third in the MCAL in the 100.
“We don’t get freshmen like that here too often,” he said.
Marcus Armstrong-Brown picked up wins in the high jump (5 feet, 8 inches) and long jump (19-2). It was the junior’s first try in a meet at the long jump, an event he only started practicing on Thursday.
“He practiced it for about a half-hour yesterday, just to get a mark in, so that was pretty impressive,” LaRocco said of Armstrong-Brown, who cleared 6 feet in last Saturday’s Halden Invitational at Davis High. “He’s been a high jumper mostly and he’s been excelling a lot in that, so I figured let’s try him at something else, so he tried the long jump. He’ll be a 20-foot jumper in no time.”
Cristian Guzman won the 3,200 meters (11:09.28) and was second in the 1,600 meters (5:02.46).
Craig Moore won the pole vault at 11-6, a personal record by six inches, and took third in the high jump (5-4).
Brandon Weaver added second-place finishes in the discus (105-5) and the shot put (41-113⁄4), the latter being a personal record by a foot. Also taking second were Joe Nasharr in the triple jump (35-1⁄2) and Michael Katrenak in the 400 meters (54.52).
Contributing third-place finishes were Brenden Cardey in the 100 meters (12.15) and long jump (18-61⁄2), Stephen Panis in the triple jump (34-1), Jinbo in the pole vault (10 feet), Fidler in the 110 high hurdles (20.34), Siy in the shot put (19-21⁄4) and Roos in the discus (95-71⁄2).
Marin Catholic won the varsity girls competition, 75-61, despite two wins apiece from freshman Isabel Jennings and sophomore Teal Bullick.
Jennings won the 400 meters (63.47) and the long jump (17-2), and Bullick took the 1,600 meters (5:38.68) and 800 meters (2:30.84).
“Isabel is just gangbusters in the long jump,” LaRocca said. “She’s been doing it since the first meet of the season, but this is her first year doing track and she set a PR of 17-4 last Saturday, so she’s been dynamite for us.”
The coach said Bullick has a good chance of going to the state meet in track, as she did for the first time in cross country this past fall. She’s lost only once in MCAL meets in the 1,600, to a girl from Branson.
But sophomore Natalie Avellar was the talk of the meet after just missing the pole vault school record of 10-4 set by Elisha Stratton as a sophomore in 2003, leaving the bar wobbling just enough to fall. Avellar still won the event at a personal-record 10 feet. Sophomore teammates Megan Gafvert and Tina Moore were second and third, respectively, at 9-0 and 8-6. All three PR’d by six inches, and are all looking to return to the CIF North Coast Section Championships May 19 at Montgomery High in Santa Rosa.
Moore also won the shot put (26-93⁄4) and was third in the discus (66-1), and Haley Weaver won the triple jump (29-3) and was second in the long jump (14-11).
Picking up second-place finishes were Monique Hale in the 300 hurdles (52.37), Cate Bozzini in the high jump (4-8) and Gafvert in the 100 hurdles (18.25).
Third-place finishes came from Lauren Kirk in the 200 meters (28.88) and high jump (4-2), Arianne Irucuta in the 3,200, and Hale in the 100 hurdles (19.32).
The junior varsity boys won big on Friday, 80-9.
They swept the top three places in the 800 meters, with Thomas Pannatier (2:15.78), Alex Kivela (2:15.96) and Austin Castrucci (2:26.08); the 3,200 with Kivela (11:09.1), Zander Gulrajani (12:52.16) and Tanner Jones; the shot put with Justin McClure (33-21⁄4), Christian Lopez (32-103⁄4) and Jones (31-2); and the discus with Lopez (83-53⁄4), McClure (65-103⁄4) and Jones (56-71⁄4 ).
Finishing 1-2 were Castrucci (5:16.65) and Gulrajani (5:47.09) in the 1,600; Steven Lum (12.21) and JT Gibson (12.50) in the 100; Pannatier (4-10) and Gibson (4-8) in the high jump; and Aaron Chau (14-3) and Gabriel Campbell (14-0) in the long jump.
Bryce Letcher won both the 400 (1:02.09) and the pole vault (9-0), tying the Wildcats’ Luca Sullivan. Taking third and fourth in the vault were Lum (8-6) and Kivela (8-6).
Chau also won the triple jump (30-1) and Lum took the 200 meters (25.2).
Several Braves will compete today in the Viking Invitational at Montgomery, giving them a chance to get used to the facility being used for the section meet three weeks later.
After today, Justin-Siena will have nearly two weeks to get ready for the MCAL Championships at Novato High, where trials will be May 10 and finals May 12.
The top four finishers or those who meet at-large qualifying times and marks will advance to sections.
