LJ track: Babic burns

By Ed Piper

Hurdler Matteo Babic of La Jolla High continued his burn of a junior track season by landing a second place in the 300-meter hurdles and third in the 110-meter hurdles at the CIF San Diego Section preliminaries Sat., May 11, at Mount Carmel High School.

Babic's time in the 300-meter hurdles was 40.33 seconds, with a wind factor. In the higher hurdles, he went 15.44 (with a 1.7 wind factor), a personal record.

The hard-working, team-oriented 11th-grader also ran legs on the Viking boys 4x400-meter relay team, which finished fifth in Division 2, and the 4x100-meter relay team, which came in 12th.

La Jolla's Sierra Roberson, a senior, qualified for the CIF Finals Sat., May 18, with a second place in the 400 meters with 57.46 (wind-aided), a personal record for the 12th-grade speedster.

Babic and Roberson and several teammates advance to the finals on the same track at Mount Carmel this Saturday. The prelims faced rain, wind, and at the end of the day, lightning that forced officials to clear the metal stands with a couple of events left.

Jackson Scherrer, a month from walking through his high school graduation ceremony on the Edwards Stadium field at LJHS, was in the middle of the pole vault event, having vaulted 13'3", when lightning literally struck and further competition was called off. Thus, the senior and all other vaulters still in the competition were declared eligible to move into this Saturday's finals.

The likeable Scherrer, a sort of peer coach to his fellow vaulters at La Jolla, also ran a leg with Babic on the 4x100 relay team. Their time was 44.77 (wind-aided). Completing the relay quartet were senior Gabe Solis and Christian Mueller.

For the Viking girls, some of the buzz on the track was again generated by some of the underclasswomen. Freshman Katie Frost placed seventh in the prelims in high jump at 4'10". She also ran with the Viking 4x400 relay team, which placed sixth at 4:10.11a.

Sophomore Amaya McMillin vaulted 8 feet to tie senior Nadezhda Urmanov for 14th place.

Fellow 10th-grader Chloe Kim went over the bar at 7'6" in the pole vault for 19th place.

Sophomore Lilly Grunski hopped, skipped, and jumped 32'8.5" in the triple jump for 12th place. The strong-legged 10th-grader also long-jumped 15'3" for 23rd place.

Katie Cavanaugh, one of the athletic sophs, threw the discus 83'7", a 17th-place finish.

Finally, among sophomore and freshman girls, Eugenia Kritsuk placed 10th in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 17.02a.