Several scholastic track teams made the best of their trips to the CIF championships last week.
On the girls side, La Jolla High placed second in Division II behind rival Cathedral Catholic. The Lady Vikings did this by setting two school records and five personal records along the way.
Junior Nihal Kayali placed second in the Division II 1600 and third overall to qualify for the state meet, scoring a school record of 5:00.80. Junior Tess Plant-Thomas followed that up in the 800 with a first in Division II and a second overall to also qualify for the state meet. She improved her time by three seconds in running 2:14.38.
The 1600-meter relay team of Kayali, Nicole Bakke, Christie Richmond and Plant-Thomas placed first and broke the school record with a time of 4:02.37.
Senior Melia Plotkin placed first in the Division II pole vault at 9’9″. Sophomore Rosie Jay placed fifth in the vault at 8’3″ and senior Lauren Shwisberg was eighth at 7’9″.
Sophomore Kylie Henry placed fifth in the 100 meters at 12.69, while senior Gina Schumacher placed fifth in the 300 hurdles with a personal record of 48.60.
Freshman Heather Martin was fourth in the triple jump with a personal record of 33’7.5″, and sophomore Jessica Armstrong was eighth in the 800 at 2:28.98.
On the boys side for La Jolla, Jose Avile took third place in the shotput competition, setting four personal records and a new sophomore class school record of 55′ 08.25″. The sophomore now has the third best throw in school history.
At La Jolla Country Day School, for the first time in school history, the LJCD boys program finished with 30 points, placing the team sixth in Division II (2,500 enrollment and below).
Top performances for the Torreys came from Alex Poyhonen (3200m Division II champion), Tricia Decker (second place in pole vault, new school record), Andy Altman (second place in the discus), Jason McCallum (second place in pole vault, fourth place in long jump), and Dennis Roth (eighth place in the 1600m).