A Perfect Day at the Central Catholic Invitational

The Central Catholic Invitational was a big, varsity-only meet that featured many outstanding performances on Saturday at Bob Benson '66 Stadium. The Harlan girls won with 137.5 points in convincing manner while Alamo Heights and Taft tied for the boys title with 92 points and Harlan finished just two points behind them.

The meet opened with the field events and Harlan's Iyanna Webb got things started on the right foot... literally. She became just the second girl in Texas to triple jump over 41-feet this year with her mark of 41-0.5. Her day was far from over. She ran her best 100mH of the season winning in 14.69 and then she teamed with Jozlynn Colin, Addison Shumate and Toryn Taylor wo win the 4x200m relay in 1:42.32. While she nabbed three gold medals, her best performance may have been in the 300mH where she hit the first hurdle and fell. She got back up and ran well enough to get all the way back to third place by the end of the race.

Madison's Mia Stewart was the only long jumper to jump past 16-feet and she won with a distance of 16-8. In the high jump, Alamo Heights swept the top three spots. Sophia Zadel cleared 5-4 while Blakely Wogstad went 5-2 and Laney Crowell jumped 5-0. O'Connor's Patrisia Ruiz set a new personal record en route to winning the pole vault with a clearance of 10-8.

The throwing events featured some close competition. Laura Sierra of St. Anthony's won the shot put with a toss of 35-10 while Siara Hardeman (Highlands) threw 34-6.5 and Alexis Owens (Harlan) took third with a mark of 34-2. Owens came back in the discus with a winning throw of 113-3. Churchill freshman Nia De Luna took the silver with a throw of 107-11.

Taft's Brooklyn Crow was the star of the distance events. In both the 3200m and 1600m she took control of the race from the outset. She won the 3200m by over 30 seconds crossing the finish line in 11:22.68. Harlan's Ashley Stratton ran a personal record time of 11:54.05 to nab second place. In the 1600m, Crow covered the distance in 5:16.08 and Stratton was runner-up once again with another personal best time, 5:31.23. In third, Incarnate Word's Julie Cernoch set a new school record with a time of 5:34.70.

The 4x100m relay was won by Harlan's team of Nadya Crawford, Miracle Shurelds, Colin and Taylor who won in 48.48. Warren and Madison were the next two across the line in 49.51 and 49.64, respectively.

The next event on the track was the 800m and Taft freshman Daniela Shelfo took charge and won in 2:20.87. She later ran the lead-off leg on their winning 4x400m relay team. They won by less than a second over Warren as Sa'nya Auguste passed Aniyah Shields on the back stretch and then was able to hold her off over the final 200m. Taft ran 4:11.63 while Warren ran 4:11.93. It capped off a nice day for Auguste who also won the 100m in 12.80, just steps ahead of Serenity McNeil of Kennedy and Kaprice Johnson of Warren.

In the 400m, Ella Sutherland of Alamo Heights ran a personal best of 1:00.98 and then had wait to see what Shields did in heat #2. Shields won the second heat by more than three seconds but came up just short of Sutherland's time and settled for second place in 1:01.58.

The 300mH saw Webb fall which allowed Syenna Lara of Warren and Chloe Nellis of Incarnate Word to take up the slack. Lara won in 47.58 while Nellis was right behind her in 47.86.

The final sprint of the day featured an upset victor. Warren's Qua'Leyah Parker posted a big personal record winning in 25.69 ahead of Taylor and Marshall's Kendall Perry who ran 26.04 and 26.09, respectively.

In the boys meet, the 4x400m relay ended up deciding the outcome of the meet. Harlan entered as the leading team with 90 points but did not put a relay team on the track. Alamo Heights won the race in 3:30.18 behind the group of Daniel Corso, Tripp Johnson, Henry Prevost and Max Bacon to get 92 points. Taft also finished with 92 points when they took third place in the relay.

The big individual winners of the meet were Warren's Nick Ross, Taft's Malik White and Jackson Lovvorn of Corpus Christi King.

Ross had a perfect day on the track starting with the 4x100m relay. He ran the anchor leg and got the baton down a step and ended up winning by 10 meters in 42.25. He ran his first open 100m of the season and breezed through in 10.52 as Harlan's G'Ivori Graham was second in 10.79. He closed out his day by running a big personal record in the 200m winning by over a second in 21.37.

White handled a tough field in both the 110mH and 300mH. In the 110mH, he won in 14.03 while O'Connor's Jake Grullon was second in 14.67 and Max Bacon of Alamo Heights took third in 15.17. In the 300mH, White and his teammate, Ja'Dan Keiler took the top two spots as each ran personal bests. White started off slow but came on like a freight train and won in 38.56 while Keiler finished in 39.40. White and Keiler were both part of the winning 4x200m relay team along with David Aguirre and Cristian Mendoza.

Lovvorn is not as well known in San Antonio but has been an excellent distance runner for the past few years and just missed making it to the State meet last year. He started the day by winning the 3200m in 9:39.56 as he ran a great first mile and then maintained his lead over Central Catholic's Andrew Rivas who finished second in 9:47.17. In the 1600m, Lovvorn took the lead from the start again and won in 4:25.26 in a much closer race over his teammate Diego Canto and Rivas who both finished four seconds behind him.

Canto was denied his own gold medal in the 800m. He led for most of the race, but Central Catholic's Noah Fernandez ran a strong second lap to nip him at the wire in 1:59.92. Canto was a step behind in 2:00.07.

The 400m race was even closer than the 800m with Churchill teammates Ilan De Luna and Alejandro Rosales battling down the stretch. De Luna was able to hold off Rosales and win in 50.07 while Rosales crossed in 50.10.

Harlan picked up a lot of points in the field events. They took the top three spots in the triple jump as Noah Folks won with a leap of 42-6 and Dwayne Wingfield went 42-0. Taveion Ford took the high jump with a clearance of 6-0 while Mathew Cordero won the shot put with a throw of 48-6.75.

In the other field events, Waylon McKenzie of O'Connor continued his strong season in the discus with another throw over 160-feet with his winning throw of 161-9. His teammate, Evan Powers, won the pole vault with a height of 12-6. The final gold medal went to Churchill's Ty Webb who jumped 20-9 in the long jump.