Story by Benjamin Regan
Associate Sports Editor
Photos by Samantha Shiroishi
Staff Photographer
Track and field hosted the Rio Hondo League Finals on Friday, April 29 at the Roosevelt Field. The festivities ended with many Tigers finishing on the podium with CIF Division 3 qualifications.
In the men’s 100m dash, junior Kainoa Jones and sophomore Zeke Gavlak finished fourth and sixth place, respectively with times of 11.33 and 11.76. The women’s 100m event was riddled with Tigers, junior Annalea Pearson, and sophomore Lyla Keller leading the way in first and second place. Seniors Skye Harris, Zoe Schlaak, and Stephanie Li were not far behind.
Sophomore Lionelle Limequeco Jr. ran the men’s 200m in 24 seconds flat, earning him sixth place. The women’s 200m event, just like the 100m event, was won by a South Pasadena Tiger. This time it was Keller taking home first in 25.97 seconds, and freshmen Jacqueline Sides and Perri Koo finished in third and fourth place, respectively.
Limqueco Jr. won second place for his time of 52.41 in the 400m event. Freshman Logan Vargas finished in fourth place, and junior Jeff Chen was in sixth. Sides and Koo represented South Pasadena in the 400m event, earning second and fourth place, respectively.
Sophomore Keeran Murray won first place in the men’s 800m event, running a 1:57.87. Juniors Jason Baek, Ian McLendon, Karl Tizon, and Nathan Rodak, along with senior Noah Kuhn finished on the leaderboard. The women’s 800m event also had numerous competitors finish in the top ten, led by senior Kerrigan Riley’s fourth-place finish.
Senior Brady Nakamura finished second in the men’s 1600m event with a personal best time of 4:25.75, earning him a spot at CIF Prelims. The women’s 1600m event saw seven of the ten runners finish in a personal best time. One of those being second place finisher freshman Abigail Errington who ran an impressive 5:04.12. Senior Sydney Morrow and freshman Amelie Geoffron were right behind her, finishing third and fourth respectively.
Nakamura won first in the 3200m event with a time of 9:55.59. Seniors Joshua Ramirez, Philson Ho, and Jennoh Rhee, as well as Kuhn, all finished in under 12 minutes to earn a spot on the leaderboard. The women’s 3200 meters event was also dominated by Tigers, but unlike the men’s event which was controlled by seniors, freshmen Errington and Geoffron, finished first and second, respectively.
Senior Henry Thompson finished in second place in the men’s 110m Hurdles event, with junior Aiden Villasenor placing in sixth and freshman Peter Dickinson earning fourth place. Sophomore Mia Holden was the only Tiger in the top five of the women’s 100m hurdles event. These same Tigers cracked the leaderboard in the 300m hurdles event, with Thompson and Dickinson representing the men, and Holden representing the women.
Limqueco Jr., Jones, Vargas, and Thompson competed in the men’s 4×100 Relay, and their time of 44.01 put them in third place. Sides, Keller, Harris, and Pearson won the men’s 4×100 Relay with a season best time of 49.13.
South Pasadena earned third place in the 4×400 relay, with Limqueco Jr., Jones, Vargas, and Thompson replicating their success to the tune of a 3:51.52 time. The men’s 4×400 relay team, consisting of Koo, Riley, Sides, and Holden, earned second place.
The podium was filled with Tigers in the men’s shot put event, with seniors Nikolas Iwankiw and Noah Leider, along with junior Isaiah Cooper, sweeping in first, second, and third place. Iwankiw reached a distance of 62 feet, more than 10 feet more than the next competitor. The women’s shot put was also won by senior Violet Main who threw 31 feet. Seniors Zoe Hollingsworth and Carolina Garavito, and juniors Luna Encinas and Amanda Ruiz all garnered a top ten finish.
Iwankiw also won first place in the men’s discus event, throwing 182 feet and Leider finished in second with a 133 foot throw. Main and Encinas finished in first and third place, respectively, in the women’s discus event.
Seniors Niko Lawrence and Sage Wayans took their hops on the basketball court to the pit as they finished first and second, respectively in high jump. Juniors Peyton Washington-Gauzer, Brooke Toshima, and Solana Cordon lit up the women’s high jump leaderboard. Washington-Gauzer won first place, and Toshima finished second.
The men’s pole vault was another dominant event for the Tigers, with senior Averell Chen winning first place. Senior Zoe Tibbo finished in second place in the women’s pole vault.
Lawrence, Wayans, and Villasenor all finished top ten in the men’s long jump. Lawrence won first place with a jump of 21 feet. Tibbo, Keller, and freshman Kezia Gavlak were all in the top five of the women’s long jump. Tibbo won first place with a jump of 17 feet.
In the men’s triple jump, Lawrence continued his astounding performance in the field events by finishing in first place. Villasenor finished second and Z. Gavlak was third. The women’s triple jump also saw three Tigers win the event, with Holden finishing in first, Tibbo in second, and K. Gavlak in third.
South Pasadena finished in first place in 16 different events and earned a spot on the podium in 42 events. The Tigers capped off the league season with an impressive showing. For athletes that qualified here, the season is not over yet as they train to compete in the CIF-SS Division 3 Prelims on Saturday, May 7.
