The podium for the high jump at Gilroy’s Avis Kelley Invite was loaded with local athletes.
At the forefront was Cody Oberlander of Christopher, who finished first in the high jump with a 6-foot, 6-inch jump Saturday at Gilroy High. Gilroy’s Tim Van Horn tied for second with Live Oak’s Michael Togliatti at 6 feet, 4 inches. Sean Kaufman was eighth for the Mustangs at 5-feet, 6-inches. Van Horn was also sixth in the triple jump with a 38-foot, 1-and-a-half-inch mark.
Two more Cougars also earned first place finishes. GHS and CHS athletes combined for 29 Top 10 finishes.
Christopher’s Vanessa Koontz took first in the 400-meter dash, sprinting for a time of 58.70.
Koontz also took second in the 200m dash in a time of 25.89 seconds.
Isaac McCrimon took gold in the long jump at 21-00.50 feet for Christopher. His teammate Haley Romero took second with a 16-foot, 1-and-a-half inch leap.
Natalie Gutierrez finished second in the high jump. The Cougar senior recorded a 5-foot, 2-inch leap. Gilroy’s Nicole Holder was seventh at 4 feet, 10 inches. She also took seventh in the triple jump at 31 feet, 4 inches.
Cougar teammates Jordan Rodriquez and McCrimon were fourth and fifth in the boys 200m race, respectively.
Gilroy’s 1600m boys and girls relay teams both earned third place finished. The girls team of Carli Colyer, Ellie Sausen, Concetta Fredricks and Monica Ruelas was just a few seconds behind the second place Alisal team and finished with a time of 4:44.40.
The Mustang’s Anela Zamarron took second in the shot put. She had a distance of 36 feet, 6 inches. Jasmine Rodriguez-Cruz took third in the discus for Gilroy, recording a 101-03 toss. Zamarron took tenth at 88 feet.
SWIMMING
CHS girls top Palma-ND
The Palma-Notre Dame swim team gave Christopher one of its toughest tests of the year, but the girls still came away with a win.
The Cougar girls won 102-67, while their male teammates fell 103-70 Friday at home.
Christopher won the first five events—the girls and boys 200-meter medley relays, 200m freestyles, with wins from Ashley DeAbreu and Darrien Yafai, and girls 200m individual medley by Macy Soloman—before it was handed its first loss. Jacob Holm lost by a 10th of a second in the boys 200m IM.
Holm got his redemption in the 500m free, however. He beat out teammate Yafai by almost a minute, finishing in 4:52.82 to Yafai’s 5:57.52. Both were well ahead of their Palma opponent, who finished in 6:30.04.
DeAbreu had the same fate in the girls 50m free, coming in second with a time of 27.11 behind her ND counterpart who finished the event in 27.03 seconds.
Soloman got the Cougars back on track with a win in the girls 100m butterfly. It was her second individual victory of the day. She was also part of the winning 200m medley and 200m free relays. Malaya Nguyen, Emma Seery, and Chloe Kurzenknabe were all on the 200m medley team, and DeAbreu, Sierra Ceballos and Seery were part of the 200m free relay.
Nguyen also recorded an individual win in the 100m backstroke. Ceballos won the 100m free, just ahead of Kurzenknabe. She finished in 1:02.16, while Ceballos recorded a 1:02.59 finish.
Max Deliz also won the 100m free for the Christopher boys.
