AYSHA SHAHEED STEALS TRACK SHOW
On a day when there were two section record-holders in the field, the standout of the section Open Division track and field championships Saturday at University City was neither.
Instead, it was Cal-bound sprinter Aysha Shaheed who stood proudly on the top of the victory stand on three occasions, twice after running the best times in the section this season.
Not that the section’s first-ever 17-foot pole vaulter, Garrett Brown, or the initial 43-foot triple jumper, Elise Miller, fared poorly — they both easily won their events — but expectations were so high that when they didn’t approach personal bests, both were disappointed.
Not so for Shaheed, who first anchored the Warhawks’ victorious 4x100 relay team in 48.23 before sweeping the sprints in wind-legal
personal bests of 11.61 and 24.14 seconds.
The 100 bettered her own 11.71 and is now the fastest time in the state. In the longer race, her winning time was .01 in front of the 24.15 run last week by Poway’s Alyssa Bean, who was second Saturday at 24.40.
Shaheed exploded out of the blocks in the 100, beating her freshman sister Amirah, who ran 12.04, to the finish line.
“Finally,” was the word she used to explain her feelings about the rocket start.
“That was the best start I’ve ever had — it feels amazing. Going 1-2 with my sister was special. I hope my sister breaks all of my records — she’s ahead of where I was as a freshman.
“All I want to do is get PRs (personal records) every time I run and hopefully that’s what’ll happen next week.”
Shaheed came back in the 200 in what was expected to be a showdown between her and 400 champion Bean (55.84).
Again the Warhawks speedster immediately went to the front and Bean had no chance to catch her as she charged through the finish line to win by 0.26 seconds.
Meanwhile, Brown cleared 16-2 but could not negotiate 16-8, having just one serious attempt.
“I blew through the first try and just didn’t feel right,” said Brown, who set the section record at 17-2 last week.
“The facility is great and the wind was fine, but I do wish I could have vaulted earlier when it was warmer.”
Miller, meanwhile, won both the long jump (a wind-aided 18-7¼) and the triple jump (38-2).
That triple jump was more than four feet behind the 42-3½ section record she set a week ago and you could tell she was frustrated when she couldn’t produce a better mark.
Elsewhere, there were a total of six double-winners led by Mission Hills’ Kyle Smith in the boys 100, a wind-aided 10.52, and 200, a legal 21.64.
Morse’s Courvosiea Irby not only won the shot at 53-4, but he also posted a section seasonal best of 169-3 to capture the discus.
Poway’s Maxwell Jefferson swept the hurdles in a wind-aided 14.33 and a 38.68 while schoolmate Tessa Buswell was first in both the girls 800 at 2:15.12 and the 1,600 in 5:00.45.
Another section best for 2021 came in the high jump, where Eastlake junior Justin Cardoza scaled 6-8.
Eastlake wins Open baseball
Sophomore Daniel Mora roped two doubles and had three RBIs as No. 8-seed Eastlake beat No. 3 Grossmont 8-3 on Saturday night for its third section title in the past four completed seasons.
Bret Leonhardt blasted a long home run to right field to make it 6-3. Sebastian Sanchez followed with a single and Mora his second double. Ethan Lizama added a sacrifice fly to finish the scoring.
Ray Cebulski (7-2, 2.44 ERA) pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the third inning and struck out 10 in 61⁄3 innings. He yielded only four hits and two walks.
The Titans got two unearned runs in the first inning and then two more unearned runs in the second on a two-run double by Mora. Grossmont got one back in the second on a single by Justin Brown and an RBI double by Barron Zamora.
A double by Marcello Mayer (3for-4) and an RBI single by Nico Libed made it 5-1.
Torrey loses in basketball
The dream of an unbeaten boys basketball season came to a crashing end for Torrey Pines High under a hail of 3-point baskets, a spate of turnovers and a dominating performance from Tennessee bound Jahmai Mashack as thirdseeded Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda got a big lead then hung on to beat top-seeded Torrey Pines 6865 to win the Southern California Open Division championship on Saturday night.
Ranked No. 1 in the state, Torrey Pines’ season ends at 30-1. Etiwanda, which edged Sierra Canyon 82-76 Thursday, finishes the season 14-2.
Etiwanda made seven 3-point shots in the first half and went on an 11-0 run to start the second quarter, breaking open a two-point game. Leading 19-17 at the end of a first quarter that saw three ties and four lead changes, Eitwanda’s run put the Eagles up by 13.
The Eagles stretched that to 19 late in the half and led by 17 at the break. Torrey Pines turned the ball over six times in the second quarter.
Mashack had 11 points in the first quarter and five in the second.
Torrey Pines made it interesting and got the crowd into the game with a 12-0 run to end the third quarter fueled by Nick Herrmann and Chris Howell and cut an 18-point deficit to six.
Three Logan Houston free throws to open the fourth quarter had Etiwanda’s lead down to three. And a Herrmann field goal had it down to two with 6:20 to play.
Etiwanda’s lead was 56-55 with 3:55 to play and built the advantage back to six with 1:30 to go, but a Howell basket with 13 seconds remaining put Torrey Pines down by two.
A Marcus Green free throw with nine seconds left gave Etiwanda a three-point lead. Howell had a contested 3-point shot that missed, but Torrey Pines had one last chance after the ball went out of bounds.
The in-bounds pass to Herrmann sailed out of bounds as he slipped turning the corner.
Herrmann led Torrey Pines with 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Howell added 18 points and six rebounds for the Falcons.