Girls track: Redwood hurdles to victory; San Marin’s Grasso sisters highlight sprints
The sprint events were lacking some of their star power with Marin Catholic’s Angelique Addae and Redwood’s Tatum McPeek both out with injuries. But the rest of the field stepped up with some electrifying performances.
Tam sophomore Clio Kunz and Marin Catholic junior Molly Stewart earned dramatic wins in the 400 and 800, respectively, and San Marin found a winning family plan in the 100 and 200.
San Marin’s Grasso sisters finished 1-2 in both the 100 and 200 meter events. Mustangs junior Sicily Grasso won the 100 in 12.71, narrowly ahead of freshman Gianna Grasso (13.08) and Terra Linda junior Milena Taschian (13.11).
Sicily Grasso again had the time to beat in the 200 (26.26), ahead of a tight battle for second between Gianna Grasso (27.11) and Redwood freshman Annalise Horn (27.21).
“We’re competitive, yeah, we’re both fighting for that first place, but we know that no matter what the outcome we’re still going to love each other,” Sicily Grasso said.
Running together for the first time this season, the sisters give the Mustangs a vital punch as they challenge each other and the rest of the league.
“I really appreciate running against (Sicily) because she’s really pushed me,” Gianna Grasso said. “Just knowing that she’s there with me just makes me go faster. I really want to go far with her.”
The Grasso sisters are going to Santa Rosa on Saturday with the best of the MCAL for the North Coast Section Redwood Empire Meet.
The Grasso sisters ran the first two legs for San Marin’s third-place 4×100 relay team with Deepti Bhat and Eleanna Schram. The Mustangs (51.56) finished close behind Redwood (50.51) and Tam (51.54).
Bolstered by four wins in Thursday’s field events, Redwood took gold in both hurdles events to lock up the girls championship pennant ahead of Tam and Archie Williams. Giants senior Ruby Hauth won the 100 hurdles (17.36) ahead of Tam’s duo of Laura Shapiro (17.82) and Natalie Popper (17.97). Shapiro’s mark is a new school record for Tam.
Redwood sophomore Sydney Middleton (51.26) edged Archie Williams’ Caroline Lozaw (52.06) and Popper (52.12) to win the 300 hurdles.
“I just didn’t want to pass out,” Middleton said after she received her gold medal. “This is my first year running track, and I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I do. I wasn’t used to the sprints and hurdles, but I’m really having fun.”
Kunz turned in her best run (1:02.14) to win the 400 just ahead of the Branson duo of Imogen Brown (1:02.38) and Hailey Sellers (1:02.51), and Archie Williams’ Taryn Creedon (1:03.95), all of whom set new personal bests.
Stewart kicked into overdrive coming around the last turn to pass Tam’s Emma Gardner for the 800 win with a new PR (2:23.16). Terra Linda’s Annie Carmona took third.
“That was an awesome race,” Stewart said. “I just wanted to go out and do my best. I’m glad I got to run against such great competition.”
After keeping leader Ani Stieg of Archie Williams in sight for the first three laps of the 1,600, Redwood junior Marley Nacco started sprinting ahead to claim gold with a personal best mark of 5:13.29. Stieg took second (5:15.94) in a neck-and-neck finish with Tam’s Emma Gardner (5:16.36).
“I knew on that last lap it was my last chance to PR,” Nacco said. “But when I race, I focus on my own race. I blacked out and just ran.”
Tam senior Ellery Barnes ran her own race to victory in the 3,200 (11:44.37) as she made a late move to rein in Branson freshman Farah Allen (11:53.29) and Peregrine Falcons’ sophomore Alyssa Silverstein (11:57.43).
“I started out slow, then wanted to make sure I was alone in front near the end,” said Barnes, who actually lapped some of the runners in the 14-girl field. “You just can’t look back. You have to keep going because it’s not over until it’s over. I’ve definitely had a few close ones in the past and I just wanted to make sure that didn’t happen this time.”
Barnes was confident in her strategy, but it was enough to aggravate her coaches, who were “yelling at me in the beginning that I should be going faster when I was trying to stick to my plan.”
Branson’s quartet of Zoe Hahn, Brooke Davis, Sellers and Brown won the 4×400 relay (4:16.93) ahead of Redwood and Marin Catholic. Archie Williams’ team of Alexandra Greenwald, Stieg, Silverstein and Brooke Lee won the 4×800 relay, one of several events completed Thursday in anticipation of Saturday’s storm.
Hauth won the girls high jump (5-0), on Thursday, one of several victories for Redwood in the field events. Trinity Chancellor had the best mark in the pole vault (10-06), while Horn won the long jump (17-08). Rachael McAllister won the girls triple jump (34-00).
Other winners on Thursday were Novato’s Audrey Kobayashi in the discus (93-10) and Tam’s Ayla Koch-Bergen in the shot put (33-04.25).