The girls on the Coronado High School track team have outdone themselves with their incredible performance ‘where the world’s best athletes compete’— the 64th annual Mt. SAC Relays.
In a last-minute addition to the girls’ seeded 4×100 relay event, four CHS sprinters traveled to Walnut, California, where they not only competed but won their heat with a City League leading time of 48.83 seconds.
According to head coach Cameron Gary, the San Diego City Conference has more than 20 participating member schools including CHS. This conference is divided into three leagues—the City, the Eastern and the Western League—and CHS belongs to the first. Apart from this conference, several others compose the entire San Diego CIF section, totaling more than 100 schools.
Gary said these conferences are divided into three divisions based strictly on each school’s enrollment size. With this criteria, CHS belongs to the largest division, Division 3, along with 64 other schools.
A last minute opening
“It’s a huge, huge meet. And it’s intimidating,” said Gary. “Big facility, big venue being televised and live streamed around the world. It’s a big deal in track to go there and do well and the girls did. So I’m very proud of that.”
The Islander girls’ 4×100-meter relay team—CHS seniors Lindsey Balsley, Tatiana Potter, junior Lauren Gilhooly, and sophomore Summer Little—placed well overall at Mt. SAC. After getting first place in the event, the team secured a No. 1 position in the City League, No. 2 in CIF Division 3, and No. 6 in San Diego County.
Gary said that while the relay team has been doing well and leading the league, their previous time of 49.38 seconds wasn’t fast enough to qualify for Mt. SAC.
“I entered them into Mt. SAC just in case,” said Gary. “At that point, they were kind of provisional entries.”
However, a last minute available entry coupled with their previous competitive run time versus Madison High School, allowed the Islanders to take the opening and compete.
“One of the entries in our heat scratched,” said Gary. “So we were in a race we weren’t even supposed to be in.”
The Islanders stepped in and defeated teams from La Canada, Corona, Mission Viejo, Cathedral Catholic and Stockdale, Gary added.
Presented by Nike, the Mt. SAC Relays is considered the largest track and field meet in the Western United States, featuring up to 9,000 high school, collegiate and professional (elite) level athletes.
“This is a very difficult meet to get into and it is an honor to represent our school there,” Gary said.
Gilhooly also competed in the women’s High School Invitational 100-meter dash and seeded 200-meter dash, finishing 9th and 3rd in those events, respectively.
Gary said her 100-meter time of 11.64 seconds is a personal record for her and ranks her at No. 2 in the San Diego CIF section, and No. 9 in California. However, because it was “wind-aided” the time cannot be considered for record purposes.
Gilhooly still ranks No.2 in the 200-meter dash in the City League and No. 3 in San Diego.
“We don’t have anybody else at her level on this year’s team,” Gary said.
Consecutive races in April
Islander athletes also did well in their last City League meet of the 2024 season on April 18, competing against Christian High School and Crawford High School teams at the latter school’s track.
Since manual timing rather than fully automatic timing was used, final times cannot be considered for record or ranking consideration, but results and orders will stand, Gary said.
Standout varsity performances included the boys and girls sprint (4×100-meter) relays notching victories, added Gary.
Balsley, Gilhooly, Little and Potter won with a time of 49.2 seconds while the boys’ team of juniors Sean Groeneveld, Von Pritchett, David Castillo and sophomore Davin Collins “won a hotly contested race, edging 0.1 second victory over Christian with a time of 44.8 seconds.”
Gary said the Islander boys have run a faster time this season and currently rank No. 2 in the City League.
The following day, on April 19, three Islanders competed in the second annual Milestone Distance Festival at Crawford High School.
Gary said Roos won the Invitational 800-meter race by nearly 5 seconds in 2:00.04 to set a new meet record while freshman Xavier Marsh set a personal record in the 400 with a third-place finish in the fastest open heat with a time of 55.09.
CHS junior Jaya Jost, ran the 1600 for the first time at 6:30.77 and ensured advancement to the league finals, added Gary.
The City League Championships take place on May 3 where the athletes’ performances determine advancement to CIF divisionals, CIF sectionals and ultimately, the CIF State Track and Field Championships.
