GOING FOR GOLD -- Griffin Nicolas Bedoya won the boys high jump with this leap.Jonatan Muñoz, International
Griffin boys and girls back on top once again
The International boys and girls teams both emerged as champions, though by close margins, in the the SCISL track championships held Tuesday at Tahuichi Stadium and Cooperative during which eleven League records were broken or tied.
The girls competition was the closer, with the Griffins coming out on top by only three points, and the outcome being decided in the exciting final event of the day, the high jump. In it, International athletes placed first and third, while second place Cooperative's entries came in second and fifth. The points in this event erased what had been a two-point advantage for Cooperative and gave International the championship.
The points totals for the girls were as follows:
International -- 260
Cooperative -- 257
Christian Learning -- 57
Cambridge -- 21
The Griffin boys won a slightly more decisive victory, as follows:
International -- 259
Cooperative -- 223
Christian Learning -- 65
Cambridge -- 59
As the point totals indicate, the track and field competition this year was basically a two-team affair between International and Cooperative. Christian Learning and Cambridge fielded only small aggregations of athletes, and were not represented in many events, including all of Tuesday's relays.
Those two schools were further hurt by other circumstances. Cambridge's squad of runners, which although small included several potential medalists, was disqualified for arriving without the required credentials.
Another disqualification -- this one for not wearing the full school uniform --erased a winning performance by Christian Learning's Danny Canaviri in the boys 1500 meters.
But the big story of the day was the record-breaking number of records broken.
* Sofia Sotelo of Cooperative significantly lowered her own marks in the 1500 meters and 800 meters. Her winning times in those races were 5:35.52 and 2:40.01, respectively.
* Carmen Mansur of International lowered the girls 400 meters record by about a half second with a clocking of 1:08.66.
* Jorge Harriague of International set a new record in the 200 meters with a time of :24.11.
* Nicolas Bedoya of International knocked four seconds off the record in the boys 800 with a time of 2:21.04. The old record had been set by International's Martin Fernandez in 2007, and had been one of the longest standing records on the books.
* The International boys 4 x 100 relay team consisting of Jorge Harriague, Marco Antonio Parada, Mario Rohrman, and Jose Bedoya shaved 0.2 seconds offg the old record with a time of 49.12.
* The International girls 4 x 400 relay of Beatriz Nallar, Florencia Sosa, Carmen Mansur, and Maria Victoria Gutierrez lowered the record in that event to 4:57.31, an improvement of almost three seconds.
* Aldana Roda of Cooperative set a new mark in the girls shot put with a toss of 9.12 meters.
* Tabitha Malloy of Christian Learning improved her own record in the discus with a throw of 21.01 meters.
* In the high jump Florencia Sosa and Nicolas Bedoya, both of International, tied their own records. Sosa cleared 1.40 meters, and Bedoya 1.70. Going for a new record, Bedoya appeared to have cleared 1.75, but the jangling bar fell just after he hit the mat.
The victories, particularly the girls', were a sweet redemption for International. The Griffins loss last year to the Jaguar girls represented the first time in memory that either International team had lost a track championship, and the Jaguar girls had appeared ready to repeat the feat this year when they emerged from the first meet of the season with a four-point advantage. (The totals for the season, which are the ones used in this article, are computed by adding the points accumulated by a team in both meets.)
The Griffin girls were able to exploit their traditional strength in the running events to overcome the small advantage Cooperative's girls continued to have in the field events.
To illustrate, if the field events in Tuesday's championships -- long jump, high jump, discus and shot put -- were calculated separately, Cooperative came out ahead of International 41-38. However, International's girls bested the Jaguars in the running events 92-82, taking both of the point-rich relays.
GLEEFUL GRIFFINS -- International boys and girls teams pose with trophies.
Jonatan Muñoz, International
The medalists in the championship meet were as follows:
Girls 1500 meters -- 1. Sofia Sotelo, Cooperative; 2. Florencia Sosa, International; 3. Laura Sanchez, International. Time: 5:35.52
Boys 1500 meters -- 1. Alejandro Rios, International; 2. Alex Apodaca, Christian Learning; 3. Jose Mozza, Cooperative. Time: 5:30.14
Girls 100 meters -- 1. Tania Landivar, Cooperative; 2. Gaby Tang, Christian Learning; 3. Kayra Czerniewicz, Cooperative. Time: 14.54.
Boys 100 meters -- 1. Jorge Harriague, International; 2. Renzo Pinto, Cooperative; 3. Mario Rohrman, International. Time: 11.85.
Girls 400 meters -- 1. Carmen Mansur, International; 2. Macarena Valdez, Cooperative; 3. Maria Barrenechea, Intrnational. Time: 1:08.66.
Boys 400 meters -- 1. Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Cooperative; 2. David Huang, International; 3.Andre Larsen, Christian Learning. Time: 1:00.67.
Girls 200 meters -- Maria Victoria Gutierrez, International; 2. Tania Landivar, Cooperative; Ana Laura Gutierrez. Time: 30.89.
Boys 200 meters: 1. Jorge Harriague, International; 2. Renzo Pinto, Cooperative; Sergio Gonzales, Cooperative. Time: 24.11.
Girls 800 meters -- 1. Sofia Sotelo, Cooperative; 2. Beatriz Nallar, International; 3. Whitney Belovicz, Christian Learning. Time: 2:40.01.
Boys 800 meters -- 1. Nicolas Bedoya, International; 2. Lorenzo Chiovoloni, Cooperative; 3. Jorge Rojas, Cooperative. Time: 2:21.09.
Girls 4 x 100 relay -- 1. International (Laura Adriozola, Maria Victoria Gutierrez, Valerie Feijoo, Maria Isabel Barrenechea); 2. Cooperative. Time: 1:01.18.
Boys 4 x 100 relay -- 1. International (Harriague, Parada, Rohrman, Bedoya); 2. Cooperative. Time: 49.12.
Girls 4 x 400 relay -- 1. International (Nallar, Sosa, Mansur, Gutierrez); 2. Cooperative.
Boys 4 x 100 relay -- 1. Cooperative (Sergio Gonzales, Jose Alfredo Abuawad, Lorenzo Chiovaloni, Renzo Pinto); 2. International. Time: 4:12.38.
Girls long jump -- 1. Florecia Sosa, International; 2. Tabitha Malloy, Christian Learning; 3. Aldana Roda, Cooperative. Distance: 3.82 meters.
Boys long jump -- 1. Nicolas Bedoya, International; 2. Milan Marinkovic, Cooperative; 3. Marco Antonio Parada, International. Distance: 5.38.
Girls shot put -- 1. Aldana Roda, Cooperative; 2. Tabitha Malloy, Christian Learning; 3. Alexia Handal, Cooperative. Distance: 9.12 meters.
Boys shot put -- 1. Esteban Eguez, Christian Learning; 2. Jeff Stabler, Christian Learning; 3. Jorge Harriague, International. Distance: 12.51.
Girls discus -- 1. Tabitha Malloy, Christian Lerning; 2. Aldana Roda, Cooperative; 3. Camila Johnson, International. Distance: 21.01.
Boys discus: 1. Jeffrey Stabler, Christian Learning; 2. Marco Antonio Parada, International; Diego Morales, Cooperative. Distance: 29.43 meters.
Girls high jump: Florencia Sosa, International, 2. Alkdana Roda, Cooperative; 3. (tie) Flavia Nostas, International, and Tabitha Malloy, Christin Learning. Height: 1.40.
Boys high jump -- 1. Nicolas Bedoya, International; 2. Danny Canaviri, Christian Learning; 3. Diego Morales, Cooperative. Height: 1.70.
