Girls’ Track and Field Preview: Multi-sport stars will play bigger roles
Crescenta Valley High junior Clair Schlueter is one of the Falcons’ most versatile athletes, having competed in the long jump, triple jump, 100-meter sprint and 400 relay last season.
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Goals for the 2016 track and field season vary as much as do the Crescenta Valley High, Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, Glendale, Hoover and Holy Family squads.
If there’s a common thread, though, each school has a reliance on multi-sport athletes.
Crescenta Valley Coach Mark Evans graduated some top talent, including All-Area Track and Field Athlete of the Year Megan Melnyk (Cal Poly San Luis Obispo), but is still optimistic as his program boasts 70 athletes.
“We don’t have quite as much depth as I’d like, but we’re coming along nicely,” Evans said. “We’re getting athletes from soccer and some from basketball who are still not here, so this won’t be a finished team for a while.”
One of those athletes is senior Alisa Shinn, a member of the basketball team that earned advancement to Saturday’s CIF Southern Section Division I-A championship game.
Two-sport star Alisa Shinn will be the favorite to win the Pacific League shot put title when she returns to the Crescenta Valley High track and field team.
Whenever Shinn returns, she’ll be the favorite to win the Pacific League shot put title after doing so in 2015 with a toss of 35 feet, 2 3/4 inches. Shinn is also expected to compete in the discus.
One of the Falcons’ most versatile athletes is back in junior Clair Schlueter, who competed in the long jump, triple jump, 100-meter sprint and 400 relay last season. Schlueter’s best event may have been the long jump, as she finished second at league finals with a jump of 17-1 behind graduated Arcadia athlete Jasmine Paulus (17-4).
Senior Liz Filpian is also back in the hurdles and will be joined by sophomore jumper Claire Codding and senior distance runner Grace McAuley.
Flintridge Sacred Heart captured its first-ever league title by winning the Sunshine League last season and took seventh place as a team with 24 points at the CIF Southern Section Division IV Championships at Cerritos College on May 23.
That type of success has coach Eddie Gorton wondering if his team is capable of a repeat feat.
“We went undefeated for the first time since I have been here. Last season was just a special season,” Gorton said. “We lost a couple of key seniors, but we’re still going to be battling.”
Gone are reliable and talented sprinter Kayla Montgomery (St. John’s University) and distance runner Kayla Grahn (Georgetown).
While losing both is a big blow, Gorton still has a talented group.
Senior captain Olivia Mathews will compete again in the long jump and triple jump this year, while also returning to the Tologs’ league championship 1,600-meter relay team (4 minutes, 2.72 seconds).
Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy senior captain Olivia Matthews is among a talented group of returning athletes for the Tologs, which captured its first-ever Sunset League title last season.
While All-Area Girls’ Tennis Doubles Player Holly MacVaugh may be best known for her exploits on the court, the senior is also accomplished on the track and returns this year as the defending league 100-meter hurdles (16.68) and 300 hurdles (48.67) champion.
Sophomore Bobby Byrne, who was tasked to lead the Tologs cross-country team after Grahn’s graduation, will now look to fill Montgomery’s void in the sprints, as she finished third in league in the 400 (58.94) and fourth in the 200 (26.56).
As for the distances, Gorton is looking for big things from junior Monica Collins.
For a third consecutive year, Flintridge Prep will start a new campaign with a new coach as the program welcomes boys’ and girls’ coach Jen Molebash.
The former Pepperdine University swimmer inherits a team that is very strong in the distances thanks to the CIF Southern Section and CIF State Division V championship cross-country squad.
Junior Natalie O’Brien returns after winning a Prep League 3,200-meter championship (12:12.04) and finishing third in the 1,600 (5:21.20).
Flintridge Prep junior Natalie O’Brien headlines a strong group of distance runners for the Rebels. Last season, O’Brien won a Prep League 3,200-meter championship (12:12.04) and finished third in the 1,600 (5:21.20).
She’ll be joined in those events by sophomore Sophie Gitlin, who transferred in from Maryland over the summer and turned in a banner cross-country season.
“I’m thrilled that we’ll have a strong core in the distances,” Molebash said. “When you have state champions, that’s a big boost to any program.”
Outside of the distances, maybe the team’s biggest scorer will be junior Hanna Barakat, the league’s reigning 200-meter (25.71) and 400 (1:00.35) sprint champion.
As for Glendale, the Nitros were competitive in the middle of the league pack and coach Bob Bailey believes his squad might climb the ladder this season.
“Like the guys, the girls have been stuck at No. 3-4 for several years now,” Bailey wrote in an email. “With over half the team as returning seniors, it is now or never if they wish to pull off an upset this season.”
While the Nitros did not win a league individual title last season, they have a few key returners led by seniors Nona Boyajyan and Nataly Vardanyan.
Boyajyan finished third in the league 800 in 2:24.90, while Vardanyan also scored a bronze in the shot put (29-9) and was fifth in the discus (95-4).
Bailey will also lean on returners Jasmine Clark (400) and Natalie Bastagian (100, 200 sprints) along with newcomers in freshman Kendal Gaskin and sophomore Marion Dacosta, both 400 runners.
Hoover may have the area’s smallest roster. Yet, that isn’t stopping coach Jack Sallakian from believing he’ll have some talented individuals filling key roles this year.
“I’m really interested to see how we’ll do,” Sallakian said. “We’re still waiting for a couple of athletes before the team is set, but I think we’ll have enough to field a competitive team.”
Sallakian will turn to seniors Leah Saunders and daughter Renee Sallakian in the distances, while senior Chenelle Herrera is expected to run in the relays and sprints.
Holy Family is expected to have around 21 athletes when the season gets underway for second-year coach Nathan Ziomek, who has laid out a couple of goals.
“I’d like to get as many of my girls in the [Horizon League] finals as possible,” Ziomek said. “Our team scores weren’t as good as I wanted them to be, but sometimes that’s just due to good competition.”
For a second straight year, Holy Family will have a homefield advantage as all the league’s track meets will be held at nearby Occidental College.
Ziomek is optimistic that senior Catherine Lanza will have a strong season in both the long jump and 100 sprint, while sophomore Angelica Gaerlan is considered a threat to win a league long jump title.
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Andrew J. Campa, andrew.campa@latimes.com
Twitter: @campadresports
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