Story by Benjamin Regan
Associate Sports Editor
Photos by Sarah Lee
Senior Staff Photographer
South Pasadena track hosted the 76th Pasadena Games on Friday, March 26th, putting on a successful meet for the 35 schools that competed. Among the attendees was Rio Hondo league rivals La Cañada and Monrovia, while nearby Southern California schools St. Francis and Maranatha were also in attendance. Sports powerhouses Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame took part in Friday’s events.
Seniors Liam De Villa Bourke, Brady Nakamura, sophpmore Ian McLendon, and junior Jason Baek propelled the Tigers to a second place finish in the varsity boys 4x800m relay, finishing with a time of 8:28.27.
In the varsity girls 100 hurdles event, sophomore Mia Holden and junior Rachel Noonan finished 5th and 6th with times of 17.60 and 18.26, respectively. Noonan also finished 10th in the varsity girls 300m hurdle event. Senior Henry Thompson was the lone Tiger on the varsity boys 100 hurdles leaderboard, finishing in 5th place with a time of 16.37. Thompson took 42.34 seconds to complete the varsity boys 300m hurdle event, earning him 5th place.
The varsity girls 100m dash saw sophomore Lyla Keller crack the leaderboard with a time of 12.86 as she finished in fourth place. Junior Kainoa Jones ran a 12.01 for the varsity boys 100m dash, earning him 28th place in the competitive event.
Two freshman girls dominated the varsity girls 1600 meter run for South Pasadena. Abigail Errington and Amelie Goeffron finished in first and second, running 5:20.75 and 5:20.77 respectively. Senior Joshua Ramirez finished in 16th place for the varsity boys 1600m run, running a personal best of 4:48.32.
Senior Skye Harris, junior Annalea Pearson, Holden, and Keller were all but 0.22 of a second faster than Arcadia in the varsity girls 4×100 relay, and with a final time of 49.58, they were fast enough to take home first place.
The varsity girls 800m run was another successful event for South Pasadena, with senior Gabriela Rodriguez, junior Kaile Fernandes, and junior Ava Fineza all making the leaderboard. The varsity boys 800m run was equally victorious, with Baek’s time of 2:04.73 earning him 8th place. McLendon and junior Karl Tizon finished in the top 25, while seniors Noah Kuhn and Ramirez rounded out the leaderboard.
In the first field event, the varsity girls high jump, junior Peyton Washington-Gauzer and senior Ellie Lupien each jumped 4’6’’ to earn them 13th and 15th place respectively. Junior Brooke Toshima earned 12th place for the varsity girls long jump, jumping 14’11’’. The boys varsity high jump and boys varsity long jump did not have a competitor who made the leaderboard.
Junior Elaine Lee jumped 29’10½’’ to earn her 10th place in girls triple jump. Senior Niko Lawrence jumped 36’1½’’ to finish 6th place for the boys.
Senior Averell Chen skied 11’0’’ in pole vault, tying him with two Harvard-Westlake competitors for 5th place.
Girls shot put event was dominated by three Notre Dame athletes filling up the podium, but senior Zoe Hollingsworth earned 9th place with a 29’2½’’ shot put for the Tigers. In varsity boys shot put, the leaderboard was riddled with Tigers as seniors Niko Iwankiw and Noah Leider earned 2nd and 3rd place respectively for impressive marks of 60’2’’ and 55’0’’.
While the girls dominated many track events, the boys had a strong display in the field portion of Friday’s meet. Iwankiw was the first place finisher in the discus throw, with his 182’0’’ throw beating the second competitor by almost 10 feet. Leider finished in 4th with a length of 140’5’’ on his discus throw.
The 76th Pasadena Games were very successful for South Pasadena, with three first place finishes and a plethora of top 10 finishes by Tiger athletes. The next meet will be the Tiger Invitational, taking place on Friday, April 8th at South Pasadena.
