A number of local scholastic track teams are putting their best feet forward as the post-season winds down.The La Jolla High girls team qualified 14 entries for the CIF Finals this Saturday, May 27, at Mt. Carmel High, 9550 Carmel Mountain Road in Poway.They include: Dana Hoolko, (100, 4×100 relay and pole vault); Alex Kearney, (high jump and long jump); Amanda Clausen, (triple jump); Tess Plant-Thomas, (800 and 4×400 relay); Courtney Avvampato, (1600 and 4×400 relay); Nihal Kayali, (1600 and 4×400 relay); Lauren Christensen, (pole vault); Melia Plotkin, (pole vault); Ashley Fu, (long jump and 4×100 relay); Gina Schumaher, (4×100 relay); Simi Sharp, (4×100 relay and 4×400 relay); and Margot Hedlin (3200).”This is the largest number of athletes that we have had in CIF in many years,” La Jolla High Head Girls Coach Roger Karnopp noted. “The girls have an excellent chance to place in any one of the top three spots in CIF Division II.”The boys of La Jolla High are following up on a strong 7-1 season for head coach Danny Kung.Charlie Gamble ran a personal-best in the 3200m in a time of 9:25.76. He ended up finishing third in Division II and fifth overall. With the performance, he advances to the A section of CIF this week. Also, Igor Seriba qualified for the A heat of the triple jump with a jump of 45′ 2.25.” He has been a favorite to advance to the A heat. Lucas Trily has qualifed for the A heat of the discus with a throw of 145-11. He has only been throwing the discus for 2 1/2 months and has established himself as one of the top disc throwers in Division II.”This season has gone as well as I could have imagined,” Kung commented. “Being a first-year head coach isn’t the easiest task. I have endured lots of challenges, but feel that I have done my best to help lead this team in the right direction this season and for the future. Despite not having won the Western League Championship, the team looks poised to have a top-five finish at CIF-SDS, which was one of the goals I set for myself before the season began.”At The Bishop’s School, the Knights also have turned in a strong season for Head Coach Mary Fran Cullen.The Lady Knights went undefeated for the first time in school history and captured the Coastal Conference meet. The boys only dropped one meet during the season, a loss to rival La Jolla Country Day School, but finished as co-league champions.CIF Finals qualifiers included: Laura Wyatt (1600m, 5:11), Elizabeth Schulze (3200m, 11:52), Aubrey Doede (high jump, 5-4) and Eudoro Orozco (400m, 51.84)”Rounding out my fourth year as head coach, I am so pleased to see how our team has grown,” Cullen said. “This year’s success was largely due to our team taking on the attitude that track is a ‘team sport.’ At the conference meet, numerous school records were broken, which were in turn broken at the CIF prelims. We will be losing a few seniors this year (boys mid-distance runners Nick Lake, Hunt Hardisty, Eudoro Orozco, sprinter Bubba Peterson, and girls sprinter Caitlin O’Neil), but have a very strong ” and younger ” group of athletes coming up. We are looking forward to using the momentum of this year in the spring of 2007.”La Jolla Country Day School and Head Coach Kevin Reaume head into the CIF Finals at Mt. Carmel High this week on a high. The boys finished the season at 8-0 and the girls were 6-1.Coastal League winners were: Valerie Christy (800m); Lauren Pischel (3200m); Anna Blumenfeld (discus); Alex Maire, (100m, 200m); Lance Rutledge, (400m); Rutledge, Rali Schwartz, Josh Acheatel, Alex Maire, (4 x 100 relay); and Taylor Sarkaria, (pole vault).Athletes advancing to CIF Finals this Saturday are: Anna Blumenfeld, A flight discus (top three in A flights or A heats advance to State), B flight shot put; Jacquelyn Vanderlip, B heat, 100H; Valerie Christy, B heat, 800m; Lauren Pischel, B heat, 3200m; and Rutledge, Schwartz, Acheatel and Maire, B heat, 4×100 relay.School records set this season included: Maire, 100m, 10.7 (broke Rashaan Salaam’s mark 10.8, Tied Salaam’s 200m 22.8); Taylor Sarkaria and Jon Volfson, pole vault, 11-6; Patricia Decker, pole vault, 8-10; and Shani Davis, 200m, 26.88 (broke Candice Wiggins’ mark of 27.0).”The men and women of this team dedicated themselves into making this a successful season,” Reaume said. “Over the past six years, going to a track once a week, our women’s team has won five conference titles (41 out of 42 dual meets) and the men’s team has won three conference titles (44 out of 48 dual meets).”