The Piedmont High School track team recorded several personal bests at the West Alameda County Conference (WACC) meet held at Hayward High on May 2 and 4.
Sophia Zalewski took second in the girls 3,200 meters in a personal record (PR) of 11 minutes, 21.02 seconds. Not long after, Seamus Chamberlain Carr finished fifth in the boys 3,200 in a lifetime best of 10:16.21. Earlier, Margaret Black scored a personal-best of her own in the girls 800 in 2:24.27, good for third place.
The top six finishers in each event advanced to next weekend’s North Coast Section (NCS) regional meet. Top performers there will advance to the May 18 NCS Meet of Champions at UC Berkeley.
“I was pretty happy with that,” Zalewski said of finishing second. “I wasn’t really expecting anything because I kind of had a busy day today. I took the SAT, I’m also sick so I was running just to run.”
Alameda’s Lauren Lum won the race in 11:17.52.
“I was just going to try to stick with the pack, maybe run behind Lauren and see how long I could keep up with her,” Zalewski said. “Ideally, I had wanted to go under 11:30 and I went 11:20.” Zalewski’s old personal-best was 11:32.88. The junior now has a chance to lower that further next weekend. “I’m going to hopefully go under 11:20,” she said.
She’ll also be competing in the 1,600, in which she also took second (5:16.66). Her personal-best in that event is 5:10.57.
Zalewski began running track in middle school when her mom told her she needed to participate in a sport and suggested running. “So I tried it and it turned out I was pretty good,” Zalewski said. “At first, I was running just to run. After running for a couple of years, I started to like it more and more and now I just love the sport.”
Parker Morell 
Seamus Chamberlian-Carr 
Kihiro Lambert Jr.
Zalewski scored 16 of the Highlanders’ 52 points, which was good for fifth place in the team scoring. Bishop O’Dowd won the girls meet with 117 points. The Dragons also won the boys team scoring with 79 points. Piedmont finished ninth with 18.4 points.
Elizabeth Korn finished second in the girls 100 hurdles in 17.92, beaten out by Bishop O’Dowd Milan Ford (17.37).
Black and Margo Donahue ran 3-4 in the 800, scoring 10 points between them. Donahue’s time was 2:24.82. Katherine Gee of Alameda was the winner in 2:21.64. Adri McAuliffe took third in the girls 300 hurdles (51.34). Castro Valley’s Zoe Bursch was the winner in 47.75.
In the pole vault, Jasmine Ghaderi finished third on the girls side at eight feet, no inches. Sarone Kelete was fifth at 6-6. Berkeley’s Georgina Ward won at 11-6. In the boys event, Castro Valley’s David Elliott won at 12-6. There was a five-way tie for third, including four Piedmont vaulters: Soren Call, Benjamin Kostroun, Oscar Kim Dangle and Cole Tahawi all cleared 9-0. Call was injured on a vault and his availability for next week is unknown.
Quincy Munyan 
Zenobia Pellissier Lloyd, Zoe Saldanha, and Sardone Kelete 
Wesley Jeng, Gabe Symkowick, Josh Lee, and Amir Singh
In the girls high jump, the Highlanders’ Audrey Wakefield finished fourth at 4-8. Rosie Bultman of Berkeley won it at 4-10.
Dylan Thayer finished fourth in the boys 800 in 2:03.70. The winner was Castro Valley’s Chris Conley (2:00.40). Ehlen Kokka finished fifth in the boys 300 hurdles in 45.23. Bishop O’Dowd’s Aiden Aguirre was the winner in 43.84.