Piedmont High School’s track and field team qualified eight individuals and two relay teams to the North Coast Section Meet of Champions, to be held May 20 at Dublin High School.
The qualifications came at the May 13 NCS Bayshore championships at Hayward High School. The top six finishers in each event move on. Some athletes may have scratched from some events, and the next finishers can advance. Other athletes qualified on time.
Spencer Sorensen-Wald and Christian Taylor qualified in multiple events. Sorensen-Wald, a junior, finished second in the boys 300-meter hurdles in 42.21 seconds behind winner Zion Shelton of El Cerrito (40.60). Sorensen-Wald earlier finished fourth in the 110 hurdles in 16.10, and was fifth in the pole vault at 11 feet, six inches. Teammate Conor Kim was fourth at 12-0. Piedmont’s Meg Foster and Marius Arno tied for seventh at 10-0 and Henry Mitchell was 14th at 8-0.
Taylor, a senior, finished fourth in the 1,600 in 4:20.77 and returned to win the 800 in 1:56.27, just in front of the Highlanders’ Parker Long, who came home in 1:57.42.
Miguel Long was fifth in the triple jump at 41-10 ¾.
Piedmont’s boys 1,600 relay team of Taylor, Long, Jack Zirkelbach-Ngai and Ryan Riddell finished second in 3:28.47, just a smidge behind Bishop O’Dowd (3:28.04).
Emily Fitzgerald (left, rear) and Skylar Best 
Jamie Schwarz (left) and Ella Yasar
The girls 1,600 team of Ella Yasar, Jamie Schwarz, Emily Fitzgerald and Skylar Best were fourth in 4:17.04.
Schwarz also finished fourth in the 800 in 2:23.05. Yasar was fourth in the 300 hurdles in 49.56.
Official team scores were not available from the NCS. However, the Exedra scored the meet unofficially and had the Highlanders with 52 points, finishing fourth in the team scoring. The girls had 12 points and finished 13th. El Cerrito won the boys title with 85 points. St. Mary’s won the girls championship with 110 points.
Other Piedmont results:
Noah Sohn 
Xander Schulte-Sasse (center) 
Sam Shelby
The girls 3,200 relay team was seventh in 11:21.91 and the 400 relay team was 10th in 53.59. Schwarz was seventh in the 1,600 in 5:22.58. Darcy McKee tied for eighth in the high jump at 4-4 with fellow Highlander Malia Williams. McKee also finished ninth in the long jump at 15-8. Brie Sotelo was 12th in both the shot put (26-6) and triple jump (31-2). She also was 17th in the discus at 73-9, one spot ahead of teammate Alina Shahid (73-8). Camille Snyder tied for 18th in the pole vault at 6-6.
Caroline Taylor (left) and Amina Greene 
Alex Aubrecht (center)
Xander Schulte-Sasse was ninth in the boys 1,600 in 4:29.51, with Julien Lee 18th at 4:39.36. Lee was also 12th in the 3,200 in 10:29.06. Marcos Filho was ninth in the high jump at 5-8. Sam Shelby was 12th in the 100 in 11.42 and 17th in the 200 in 23.45. Zirkelbach-Ngai was 12th in the 800 in 2:03.29. The 3,200 relay team was 12th in 9:08.28.