Eagle pair advance to state, others finish strong
SAN DIEGO — Nearly 20 local track and field athletes took to Mt. Carmel High School last week to compete in the CIF-San Diego Section finals after qualifying in their respective events on May 19.
While the meet was a competitive affair, two athletes were able to make it to the winner’s podium and advance to the state meet in Clovis, which begins at 3 p.m. today.
Advancing to the state meet were a pair of Eagles from Southwest High in Tyler Saikhon and Alexis Paco.
This is Saikhon’s second-consecutive trip to the state meet and a first for Paco.
Saikhon will be competing in the 110-meter hurdle event after his first-place finish at the CIFSDS Div. I meet on Saturday.
The 18-year-old completed the race in 14.36 setting a new school record and reserving a spot in the state meet.
Saikhon also competed in the 300-meter hurdle event last week and took second place with a time of 38.75.
While Saikhon will be testing his skill on the track, Paco will be competing in a field event at state.
The 18-year-old will be competing in the shotput after he qualified with a launch of 54-feet last week.
The mark also set a new school record in the event, which had been in place since 2014.
Although Saikhon and Pace were the only athletes to advance to the state meet, the remaining athletes that competed at the CIFSDS finals finished their season on a strong note.
Imperial High’s Lilly Vaal was the lone female to advance to the finals and did so in the long jump. Vaal ended up taking seventh place with a leap of 5 feet.
Also from Imperial, Robert Quintero took eighth in the 400 meters, finishing in 51.54.
From Holtville High, Eddie Quintero competed in the 1600-meter event and took fifth with a time of 4:19.40.
Brawley Union High’s Isaac Garcia was one of the Valley’s two athletes to advance to the final in the 100-meter sprint alongside Southwest’s Justin Cordova.
Garcia completed the sprint in 11.13, while Cordova crossed the finish line in 11.52.
Garcia also advanced with the team’s 4x400-meter relay alongside Leonardo Gutierrez, Daniel Gonzalez and Angel Palacio, who took sixth with a time of 3:26.12.
That event also had two Valley competitors as the team from Central Union High also had relay that qualified.
The group of Joseph Castillo, Aram Zavala, Thadeo Campbell and Michael Sullivan finished their race in 3:29.30.
Also from Central, Steven Marquez competed in the high jump final. The junior Spartan hit 6 feet in his leap.
Rounding out the group of local athletes at the CIF-SDS final was Central’s Angel Rico.
The senior advanced to the final in the discus event where he hit a mark of 126-10 to end the season.
See how Saikhon and Paco fared at the state meet in future editions of the IV Press.