Redwood senior William Ghalam will continue an amazing farewell tour, while Giants freshman Annalise Horn is making the most of her debut season. The duo, along with junior teammate Antonio Bayon, headline a contingent of Marin County athletes heading to the CIF State Meet, May 24-25, at Buchanan High in Clovis.
Ghalam won the boys 400 meter dash to highlight a busy day for Marin County athletes at Saturday’s North Coast Section Meet of Champions in Dublin to secure his ticket to the State Meet. Ghalam’s winning time of 48.97 seconds gave him a strong win over Cardinal Newman senior Liam Currie (49.32).
Ghalam was less than a half-second. off the PR time of 48.51 he set the week before at the NCS Redwood Empire Meet, when Currie was also the runner up.
Horn secured a ticket to the State Meet in the girls long jump with a second-place finish of 18-05.50 for a new PR. Her mark was just six inches off the winning jump by senior Natalie Lyons of Acalanes.
Bayon claimed second place in the boys pole vault, as he cleared 14 feet, 4 inches to qualify for the State Meet. Redwood senior Trinity Chancellor had her best effort of the season in the girls pole vault as she cleared 11 feet, 3 seconds for a fifth-place finish.
Archie Williams’ 4×800 relay team of Ani Stieg, Alyssa Silverstein, Alexandra Greenwald and Brooke Lee set a new MCAL record to place fifth (9:43.10) in Friday evening’s action. The Peregrine Falcons hovered around sixth place for the first leg of the race, before Silverstein overtook University’s Dorothy Chrisman to help give the Falcons the push they needed. The previous best time by an MCAL squad was 9:46.02, set in 2022 by Tam’s Anala Concannon, Emma Dunmire, Emma Gardner and Brianna McInnis.
Ghalam also joined Redwood’s Paolo Guerrero, and Anthony and Marco Cleary to placed fifth in the boys 4×100 relay (43.04).
The Tam 4×400 relay foursome of Nate Wanger, Dexter Burnett, Cooper Hatch and Caeden Gardner placed fifth (3:26.43), followed in sixth by Archie Williams’ John Minutoli, Calvin Arnold, William Finley and Lochlan McLean (3:27.40).
In other events, Marin Catholic junior Molly Stewart placed fifth in the girls 800 (2:19.48). Archie Williams’ Will Mulliken took fourth (4:16.02) in the boys 1600, and Redwood junior Marley Nacco placed ninth in the girls 1600 (5:16.96). San Marin junior Trenton Jepma placed first in his flight in boys discus and ninth overall (144-09). In the girls discus, Tam’s Ayla Koch-Bergen was tops in her flight at 95-02, but that was good enough for only 15th overall.
Redwood placed 10th with 20 points in the boys team standings, followed by Archie Williams (25th) and Tam (34th). The Redwood girls finished 18th and Archie Williams 31st.
San Rafael resident and Marin Waves Track Club standout Ellie McCuskey-Hay won the long jump and 100 meter dash at the Central Coast Section Championships in Gilroy and qualified for the CIF State Meet in four events total. McCuskey-Hay took gold in the long jump with a mark of 18-1.5 and won the 100 meter in 11.99 seconds. She took third in the 200 (24.98) and was part of St. Ignatius’ third-place 4×100 relay team (48.19.
