Against the best Division III jumpers in Southern California, sophomore Tianhao Wei won first place in the boys’ triple jump with an extraordinary 46’06” jump on Saturday at CIF Finals. His new personal record in the event was nearly a foot farther than his previous personal best of 45’07”. Wei’s astounding jump at El Camino College was the second farthest by a sophomore this year in the entire state of California. In addition to making him the CIF champ in Division III and earning him a spot in the CIF Masters meet, his 46’06” leap was the second best across all divisions in the Southern Section.
“Last year this meet ended my season because I couldn’t jump right due to nerves,” Wei said. “This year was different. I was relaxed and knew I could make it past finals. Although my form wasn’t great, the meet flowed well and I was able to jump a PR.”
Junior Kai Dettman also had an impressive performance at CIF Finals, placing 3rd in the boys’ 800 meter race, He finished with a time of 1:56.15 but was unable to qualify for the CIF Masters meet. In the girls’ 800, sophomore Gianna Beasley also just missed out on qualifying. She came in second place with a time of 2:16.46, narrowly beating out the 3rd place runner Ellaney Matarese, from La Canada, by .05 seconds.
The girls’ 4×400 team came close to qualifying for CIF Masters but once again fell just short, placing 5th. Along with Beasley, juniors Christina Taylor and Ashley Hugasian, and senior Riley Segal’s time of 3:59.06 was about four seconds slower than their time at the same meet a year ago.
Wei will make his way back to El Camino College on Saturday, May 26, where he will compete against the best jumpers from all divisions in the Southern Section for a spot in the CIF State Championships Prelims meet.
