At the CIF Track and Field Finals May 21, Poway had a successful day with girls winning CIF and many athletes winning their events and qualifying for State.
Making their personal record for the season, the girls’ 400-meter relay blew the competition out of the water with a 3:49.93 time, a whole four seconds faster than the second place team.
Poway’s Track and Field team had 24 athletes qualify individually and two relay teams qualify for CIF Preliminaries.
The two relay teams were the girls’ 100- and 400-meters. Seniors Alyssa Bean, Claire Blanco, and Indy Langford were in both relays, and sophomore Tessa Buswell completed the 400-meter team while sophomore Courtney Carpenter completed the 100-meter team.
At finals both teams qualified for state. In the 4x400m, the girls won overall, and in the 100-meter the girls finished third overall
Individually, Bean won CIF overall in the 200- and 400-meter sprints.
“Having won both individual events was crazy, especially the 200-meter since I wasn’t slated to win. I knew the 400-meter was in my favor, and I did PR in that, so that part was a dream come true,” Bean said.
CIF Preliminary competition took place May 14-15, and Poway had 11 athletes move on to CIF Finals.
Senior Mackenzie Rogers won the 1600- and 3200-meter sprints, qualifying her for finals for both events.
“Winning got me an auto qualifying spot into the fast heats at Finals. Finals is the important weekend, but winning at Prelims gave me a lot of confidence going in,” Rogers said.
At finals Rogers won both the 1600- and the 3200-meter sprints, qualifying her for State for both. Rogers is committed to run track and cross country next year at the University of Arkansas.
In the boys’ pole vault, seniors Jaeden Correa and Nathan Richards took second and third, moving them on to State.
“My biggest accomplishment this season was getting my new PR of 14”11 and qualifying to go to State,” Richards said.
Additional qualifiers for State include junior Evangeline Thompson for Girls’ Pole Vault and sophomore Tessa Buswell in the 800-meter.