Sunset v. Westview Track Meet
Written by Suan Cho and Ethan Tsai, Edited by Rhea Banerjee
Note: This series on the Track Meets was delayed due to IB Testing — we will have the rest of these articles out very soon.
Southridge High School — May 11 — On April 24, Sunset held a home meet against rival school Westview, and faced much tougher competition than in previous meets due to Westview’s equally numerous team and sprinting prowess. This meet took place on a cloudy day with moderately chilly temperatures, making it ideal for long distances and not so ideal for sprinters.
Sprints
The meet began with the 4x100 relay event as usual. Westview took the win in both of the girls’ 4x100 relays, while Sunset took a default win in the boys’ varsity as the only team competing and top two in the JV boys. The JV teams were led by Carson Aspnes (10) and Kaleb Price (9), and took first and second with times around 46 seconds, a second faster than the four Wildcat teams. The girls’ side was a much tougher competition, with Westview winning both the varsity and JV races, partially due to varsity Westview’s swift recovery from a poor handoff.
In the 100m, the varsity boys race had Calder Morrison (12) PR with a time of 10.91, breaking the 11 second barrier for the first time and winning his race. The junior varsity race was neck-and-neck between Sunset and Westview, but eventually Guillem Ortega-Riveras (12) crossed the finish line a mere 0.06 seconds before his Wildcat counterpart, PRing with a time of 11.53. Unfortunately, the Westview girls took the win in both the girls varsity and junior varsity races, although Sunset put up a close fight.
Fortunes turned around in the 200m, where Naomi Cesar (9) and John Russak (11) won their varsity races with times of 26 and 22 seconds respectively. The junior varsity races were more contested, Westview taking the wins in both, but only by a gap of 0.2 seconds in the girls’ and 0.09 seconds in the boys’ race.
Westview dominated the 400m, taking first in all events except the girls’ varsity, where Elise Christianson (10) was the only competitor. Luckily, Sunset took many runner-up places in the other races, preventing Westview from running away with a full 27 points.
Distance
The 800m was a much-needed boost for the Sunset team, with Apollos taking first in both varsity races and one JV race. The varsity girls’ race saw Naomi Cesar and Kaylee Charon (10) merge into second and fifth place early on, sitting behind their competitors before kicking past them in the final 150m, each moving up a place into first and fourth. Ellie Baker (9) moved into third by the end of the first lap and stayed there for the rest of the race. Naomi was the highlight of the event, running 2:16.38 — a full six seconds faster than anyone else.
The JV race saw rising star Zoey Sweet (9) take a strong position early on, pulling away from the rest of her team and into the front, ahead of a pack of three Wildcats. Despite their efforts to pull ahead of Zoey, the Wildcats were unable to catch her, letting her finish strong in first place with a time of 2:42.00.
Will Fitch (12) and Rohan Shenoy Kudpi (11) ran superbly in their varsity race, each with times only a second or two over the two-minute barrier. Nevertheless, they still ran PRs and were a solid four seconds faster than the next Westview competitor. However, in the boys’ junior varsity, the Westview team had far more runners in the first heat than Sunset, resulting in Wildcats taking first and second, with Ethan Cheshire (10) coming in third.
The 1500m also saw general success from the Sunset team, especially on the girls’ side. In the varsity race, Rowan Miller (12) and Emily Roskowski (12) both moved to get in front at the beginning and then stayed behind their Westview counterparts for most of the race to conserve energy for the Twilight Relays in two days. With about 150m to go, they both immensely accelerated their pace, putting a 30m gap between them and Westview in that final distance. In the girls JV, Priya Clemons (9) and Elise Sullivan (9) both PR’d into first and second place with times of 5:41 and 5:48 respectively, an impressive time for freshmen runners.
Drake Zeramby (11) moved into first place at the beginning of the 1500m, but soon slowed to conserve pace, moving down to fifth place where he remained for the rest of the race. Unfortunately, the Wildcats in that race proved particularly proficient, taking first through fourth, the faster two running times of 4:11. Ultimately, Westview took the top four places, followed by the three Apollos and three more Wildcats. The boys JV was a close call for Sunset, despite the initial start of the race. At the beginning, a lone Wildcat pulled ahead in the front of the pack, but by the third lap had fallen behind to third place, passed by a horde of Apollos. However, at the final 400m mark, he kicked hard and overtook all the runners ahead of him aside from Ethan Cheshire, placing second. When asked about competing against the Wildcat, Ethan commented “I had checked his [previous] time before the meet, and seeing that he was tall and skinny as well, I figured he was pretty fast. So when he started off slow I knew something was up.” As a result, when the Wildcat began catching up, Ethan was prepared and had enough left in his legs to keep some distance between them until the end.
Finally for distance, going into the 3000m, the competition was strong between Mattias Curlin (11), Corbin Allen (11), Tyzo Vangrunsven (11), and Santi Gaete (11). All four were rising stars among the distance team, and had been told the fastest runner would be given the last varsity districts position. Each ran well, but the race was ultimately won by Mattias Curlin with a time of 9:35.61, a surprising outcome considering Mattias had not consistently ran in winter training, usually a prerequisite for contesting varsity spots. In terms of competition against Westview, Sunset took the top four spots, with Westview coming 5th, 6th, and 7th.
Hurdles
The Sunset hurdle team, arguably one of Sunset’s best assets, dominated the track. In the 100/110m, Kella Folkerts (12) leapt her way to first place with a time of 16.49, followed two seconds after by Mila Blair (10) and Gabriella Ramm (12), resulting in a sweep with the top three. The result was much the same in the junior varsity race, with Sunset taking the top four. Moving on to the boys, Rick Paulson (11) secured first for Sunset with a time of 16.86, followed alternating by Wildcat and Apollo finishers.
The 300m hurdles saw similar results with Terra Folkerts (12) placing first and closely followed by two more Apollos, achieving yet another sweep for the hurdles. The junior varsity also saw a full sweep, with many of the previous 100m hurdlers placing highly once again. The boys faced harder opponents, with Rick Paulson eking out a first place ahead of three Wildcats in the varsity race, and Siddarth Moffitt (10) placing first ahead of three Wildcats in the junior varsity. Yet in the end, Sunset successfully won each of the hurdle races, giving Apollos a surplus of points over the Wildcats.
Jumps
The long jump was packed this meet, with an incredible 72 athletes competing in the event. In girls’ varsity, Kella Folkerts took the win with 15’ 10”, followed by Miu Takeuchi (10) and Gabriella Ramm. “I improved this time, but I feel I could have done better,” said Miu. “I was feeling tired because I had lots of tests and it really affected me. But compared to last year, I definitely improved.” In the JV section, Jordan Bennett (12) jumped a distance of 15’ 4.5”, a stunning five inches more than her previous meets, putting her in competition for a varsity spot.
Meanwhile, Westview brought serious competition to the boys’ long jump, with two Wildcats jumping distances longer than 19 feet; one of them, Michael Tibebu, winning the varsity section with 19’9”. Nevertheless, Sunset’s Omer Shapira (12) prevented a sweep by jumping 19’2.5”, placing second and above the other Wildcat. Westview also had a jumper place first in the JV section, but Apollos Tyler Huynh (10) and Matthew Lohman (11) took second and third.
The triple jump was much less crowded, with a mere 16 athletes competing. Kella Folkerts and Miu Takeuchi once again took first and second in the varsity girls with distances of 35’ 1.25” and 32’ 1.75” respectively, while Eli Hoffman (10) PR’d by a foot to place 1st with 41’ 3”, right above a Wildcat. When we asked Miu and Kella about their jumps in both events, Miu said “I honestly prefer the long jump. Triple jump can be confusing, but long jump is simple and I only have to focus on jumping [rather than stepping technique].” Kella, on the other hand, preferred triple jump, saying “it’s because I can jump further than the long jump. I’m also excited to get my plaque because my record went over 32ft!”
In the end, Sunset took the win over Westview in both the boys and girls varsity, with a score of 85–60 and 95–37. Due to the delay of IB tests, this article came out much later than usual, so the next meet will be the State Meet on Friday and Saturday (May 17–18), at Hayward Field (located in the UofO campus in Eugene). The distance will certainly be much longer than usual, but if any of you happen to be in the area during that period of time, we are confident that your support will be appreciated by the Apollos competing there. More information and statistics can be found on Sunset’s athletic.net page, and highlights can be found on Instagram at apollostf.
Photographer Credits: @eloika (Coach Rozendaal) and @endlessrainpapercup (Tali Ly)
