By Jesse Mann and David Boldt
The Cooperative boys track team found itself in a strong position after the first day of the two-day SCISL track meet, which was comprised of the high jump, long jump, discus and shot put events held at International Monday.
The day ended with the Jaguars in the lead with 38 points, followed by International with 29, Christian Learning with 25, and Cambridge with 22.
The running events will be held Friday at Tahuichi Stadium, and the score from those events combined with Monday's results to decide the winner of this first meet of the season. Ultimately the League championship will be decided by combining the point totals of the first meet with those garnered at a second meet to be held April 13 and 16, at which championship medals are awarded.
Chavez' migty heave takes shot put
With a mighty heave, Ezekiel Chavez launched the metal orb 11.42 meters onto the field where it landed with a muffled thump, giving the Jaguars the edge they needed to claim first place in the boy's shot put competition on Monday.
Although Chavez's winning toss was one meter short of the league record set by Christian Learning's Esteban Eguez in 2008, it was a full seven centimeters ahead of second place winner Griffin Juan Velasco's 11.35. Velasco had set the standard early on in the match with a beautiful throw that sailed over ten meters, and his dominance was not challenged until Chavez's final heave.
But can he do it again?
After a slow start, the varsity boy's discus competition became an animated struggle between Cambridge's Tadeo Carmona and Andres Shin from the Jaguars that Shin finally won -- although everyone was waiting toi see if Jaguar Ezekial Chavez could launch another moonshot as he demonstated he was capable of.
Watching the contestants warm up for the varsity boy's discus contest on Monday, a bystander would have been quite bored with the floppy throws that were exhibited until Chavez, Cooperative's power launcher, stepped up and unleashed his disc. Onlookers first gasped and then cheered as Chavez's disc floated over twenty meters -- much farther than anyone else's and beyond the demarcated area -- before landing softly on the grass.
Chavez's outstanding toss successfully awoke the other contestants from their lethargy, and the competition began in earnest. But ironically, all three of Chavez's subsequent attempts landed out of bounds.
Chavez's teammate Andres Shin successfully kept Cooperative's hope for victory alive when his first disc flew 26.60 meters. A couple of rounds later Carmona flung his disc 23.75 meters; Shin responded by hurling his final disc 26.80 meters – short of the league record but enough to silence Carmona.
Canaviri triumphs in high jump
Christian Learning ninth grader Josiah Canaviri won the boys high jump with a leap of 1.60 meters , and made threee unsuccessful attempts to tie the League record of 1.70.
His principal rival, and second-place finisher, was Saul Torrez of International, who had the most unorthordox jumping style in the meet. While all of the other competitiors approached the jump from the side at high speed, Torrez trotted directly at the jump like a horse, then took off like an assault helicopter when he got to the bar.
After he missed his third attempt at 1.60 the Interneational senior gallantly trotted over to Canaviri and enthusiastically shook his hand in congratulations.
Third place went to Cambridge eighth-grader Percy Vidal, who made it it to 1.55 before missing three times.
There had actually been six jumpers who were still in the running at 1.50, but at that point Santiago Bedoya of International, Trevor Reed of Christian Learning, as well as Hyun Kim and Bruno Alvarenga all missed three times.
Kim outleaps all in long jump -- narrowly
Cooperative's Hyun Kim made the longest leap of the day -- 5.12 meters -- to win the boys long jump, but Josiah Canaviri came within 8 centimeters on his final jump adding some zest to what had been a largely unsuspenseful event..
Through the first two rounds Kim was dominating the event, with the two longest leaps of the day, and was the only leaper to break the five-meter mark. The closest anyone else had come was Santiago Bedoya of International with a jump of 4.83. Bedoya would also come up with his biggest jump of the day in the third round when he leaped 4.96 to take third place.
Kim's third jump was no disgrace. He leaped 5.03, making him the only competitor to pass the five-meter mark twice. Indeed, he was nothing if not consistent. His first jump was 4.98.
However, no one seriously challenged the League record of 5.55 meters, which has stood since 2009.
(Jesse Mann is a senior at Christian Learning and managing editor of the website; David Boldt is the faculty advisor.)
