For the second straight year, Gilroy played host to the Central Coast Section track and field semifinals and the local athletes stepped up to the occasion.
Gilroy High School qualified two athletes in three events for the finals on Friday to lead a group of 14 athletes who competed on Saturday at the semis.
Leading the charge was Gilroy’s Anela Zamarron who qualified in two events, both of them in the throws.
Her best finish was a third place effort in the shot put where she threw a 39-foot, 1.75-inch shot.
In clearing 39 feet, Zamarron beat her seed mark by almost exactly a foot, bettering her qualifying mark of 38 feet, 2 inches.
She was about another foot off of second place, turned in by Krissy Smoot from Notre Dame-Belmont who threw 40 feet, 2 inches and the first place mark from Mountain View’s Sinai Fatafehi with a 41-foot, 11-inch mark.
Zamarron followed that up with an 11-place finish in the discus, throwing 110 feet, 2 inches.
She qualified for Friday’s finals by 11 inches and was within eight inches of cracking the top 10 places.
Valley Christian’s Anna Maumalanga took first in the semis with a toss of 124 feet, 10 inches.
The second qualifier for Gilroy came in the pole vault with Logan Flores clearing 12 feet, 6 inches to take 11th and advance to the finals.
He was off his personal best of 13 feet, 6 inches, but then everyone at the semis were having tough goes in their runs.
The top mark maxed out at 13 feet, which eight athletes cleared, all of whom have marks of above 13 feet this year.
The top seed coming into the event was Los Gatos’ Thomas Johnstone who had a seed mark of 15 feet, 9 inches, but topped out at 13 feet even.
Flores also competed in the triple jump, where he turned in a solid 40 feet, 4.5 inches to take 23rd for the meet.
He was less than two feet off of the qualifying mark of 42 feet, 2.5 inches, which Flores has cleared this season. His season best coming into CCS was 42 feet, 8 inches.
Bellarmine’s Ryan Hanson took the top spot with a 45-foot, 6.25-inch leap.
Also competing for Gilroy was Searra Harding, who competed in two events for the girls’ team.
Her best place came in the 200-meter dash where she took 16th overall with a time of 26.45. She dropped 0.13 seconds off her seedtime. She was 0.81 seconds off of qualifying for Friday’s finals.
Harding narrowly missed qualifying for the finals in the 100m by 0.24 seconds, taking 18th overall with a time of 12.68.
She was 0.19 seconds better than her seedtime of 12.87. Harding needed to hit a 12.44 to crack the top 8 to move on to the finals.
Marcela Mantilla shaved 0.31 seconds off of her seed time in the 100m hurdles turning in an 11th place performance of 16.12.
She was just 0.42 seconds off of qualifying as a freshman to the finals.
On the boys’ side, Deyvin Mariscal took 13th overall with a time of 42.15 to round out the Mustangs’ day.
From Christopher, Jessica Bright qualified for two events, getting a shot in the 100m dash and the 300m hurdles.
Bright turned in a time of 13.27 in the 100m for 32nd overall.
In the hurdles, she turned in a 24th overall performance with a time of 49.20.
The freshman turned in a time that was 0.16 seconds better than her seedtime of 49.36.
Staying in the races was Fatimah Ahmad got her first look at CCS competition, turning in a 22nd place performances in the 200m with a time of 27.22.
Rounding out the races was the girls’ 4×100 team from Christopher that ran slightly under its seed time to take 23rd overall with a time of 51.84.
Moving to the field events, Isabella Jimenez got a top mark for the Cougars, turning in a 14th place performance with a toss of 108 feet, 10 inches.
Kennedy Bretz improved her high jump mark by two inches in her first CCS competition, clearing 4 feet, 8 inches to take 25th overall.
Rounding out the Christopher girls was Ciana Clinton who had a solid day in the shot put, taking 15th overall.
She was less than a foot away from qualifying for the finals, throwing 34 feet, 10.25 inches.
The last qualifying spot went to Mt. Pleasant’s Kelly Tang who threw for 35 feet, 5.5 inches.
Moving on to the boys’ side, Christopher had three competing in the semi finals.
Leading the charge was Andrew Brisby who turned in a 20th place performance with a time of 23.34.
Josiah Hobbs had a 22nd spot in the high jump, clearing 5 feet, 7 inches.
Finally, Austin Hudson turned in a 27th place performance in the 800m with a time of 23.34.
Friday’s events will kickoff with the field events starting at 4 p.m. at Gilroy High School with the pole vault. The track events will begin at 6 p.m. with the 4x100m relay.
