Piedmont High School’s track and field teams had a strong day at the North Coast Section Bayshore championships on May 11 at James Logan.
The Highlanders boys and girls teams each finished eighth in the team scoring. According to Piedmont coach Pouyan Assadi, 19 Highlanders will compete at the NCS Meet of Champions on May 17-18 at Dublin.
The top six finishers in each event at the Bayshore championships qualified for the Meet of Champions plus wild card entries from all of the NCS regional meets. Also, some qualifiers drop events, which leads to finishers outside the top six moving up.
Breah Bell led the Highlanders girls, breaking the school-record in the 100 meters in 12.55 seconds (-1.4 meters per second wind). That was good for fourth place. She was ninth in the long jump at 16 feet, 7 ½ inches (no wind indicated) and will compete at the Meet of Champions thanks to scratches above her. She was 15th in the 200 in 27.28 (-0.2) and also ran a leg on the fourth-place 400 relay team in 50.03. Miranda Liu, Ella Yasar and Claire Aubrecht filled out the squad.
Yasar was huge on the day, taking third in the 300 hurdles in 48.47 and also running a leg on the fourth-place 1,600 relay team. Daniela Lucaccini, Skylar Best and Jamie Schwarz combined with Yasar to run a 4:15.55. Schwarz finished fourth in the 800 in 2:23.24. She also took seventh in the 1,600 in 5:21.26 but will drop that event at the Meet of Champions. Best was right behind her in eighth in 5:26.81 and will compete at the Meet of Champions.
The 3,200 relay team of Ryo Woltag, Caroline Taylor, Gladwin Horsely and Nasreen Schulze was second in 10:26.07. Alina Shahid was fifth in the discus at 97-0.
“Our girls captains stepped up over and over on Saturday,” Assadi said. “Breah PR’d in three of her four events and most importantly she broke Piedmont’s all-time 100m record set back in 2005. Alina actually came close to Piedmont’s discus record, and Jamie qualified in the 800 for a third consecutive year. It’s nice having a group that’s so dependable. Jamie and Breah [seniors] will be missed for sure.”
Freshman sensation Sebastien Swain led the boys, taking third place in the 800 in 1:59.03 and fifth in the 1,600 in 4:20.97. Swain will drop the 800 in favor of the 1,600 at Meet of Champions.
Xander Schulte-Sasse was fourth in the 3,200 in 9:37.46. Miguel Long was fourth in the triple jump at 43-1. Albert Bellingrath took fifth in the 110 hurdles in 15.99 (-1.9) while Meg Foster was sixth in the pole vault at 11-8.
“Simply put, Albert is a beast,” Assadi said. “He has only been hurdling for two months and he currently has the No. 1 high hurdle time across all sophomores in the 150 schools of NCS. His work ethic is next level so while it’s surprising it’s not that surprising.”
Assadi said only three seniors are among the athletes moving on, giving his program a bright future.
Piedmont’s girls scored 31 ½ points, just ½ point behind Mission San Jose in seventh. Bishop O’Dowd won the team title with 73 points with James Logan next at 68. The Highlanders boys scored 19 points. El Cerrito and Bishop O’Dowd tied for first with 83.
Field events at the Meet of Champions start with the girls discus at 1:30 p.m. Running events begin with the girls 400 relay at 4:15. The top three finishers in each event plus qualifying marks advance to the California Interscholastic Federation championships May 24-25 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Clovis.