Piedmont has strong Bayshore meet
The Piedmont High School track and field teams had a strong performance at the North Coast Section Bayshore track and field championships on May 17 at Corbus Field in Vallejo.
Sophomore Sebastien Swain set a personal-best in winning the boys 800 meters in one minute, 54.55 seconds. Miguel Long won the boys long jump at 22 feet, 3 ¾ inches, also a PR. And Nia Kim won the girls 100 hurdles in 15.19, yet another PR.
The boys 1,600 relay team of (Maddox Ma, Sam Shelby, Maddox Ma, Rehan Mumtaz and Swain) won in 3:28.75.
The top six finishers in each event advanced to the NCS Meet of Champions at Dublin High School May 23-24. Finishers outside the top six also advanced based on marks or on scratches out of the top six.
Piedmont’s Miguel Long placed in four events at the NCS Bayshore Championships on May 17 at Vallejo High School. He won the long jump with a personal-best 22-3 3/4. 
Piedmont’s Rehan Mumtaz (purple) ran legs on the Highlanders first place 1,600-meter relay and fourth-place 400 relay teams.
The boys team scored 64 points for third place. Bishop O’Dowd won the title with 77 ½ points followed by St. Mary’s at 65. The girls team finished fourth with 43 points. St. Mary’s won with 138.
Highlanders coach Pouyan Assadi said the team scores were the best in at least 30 years. The NCS has changed the scoring systems multiple times over the years, increasing the pool of potential points. Multiple types of qualifying meets for the Meet of Champions have also been used. Current regional qualifying meets were created in 1995.
There is no record of Piedmont winning the team title at a qualifying meet. But the Highlanders have won three boys titles at the Meet of Champions: 1929, 1937 and 1943.
“Seb had a phenomenal race,” Assadi said of Swain. “He has run the 800 like a vet since Day 1 but on Saturday he executed the tactical part of the race perfectly. His anchor leg of the (1,600 relay) showed that his speed and endurance are where they should be in preparation for next week.”
Long had a busy day, finishing second in the triple jump (44-7 ¾), fourth in the 300 hurdles (42.36) and fifth in the high jump (5-10) in addition to the win in the long jump. The hurdle mark was also a personal-best. Assadi said Long outscored 29 of the 36 teams at the meet with 24 points and called it “kind of mind-blowing.” He added that Long “has set himself up with an opportunity to go to the state meet. What he’s doing is about as impressive as it gets.”
Kim took third in the high jump at 5-0. But the performance in the hurdles was especially impressive, according to Assadi.
“I still can’t believe Nia is a hurdler only because she casually jumped over a hurdle one day in between sprint reps,” he said. “I was like, ‘Woah, come back and do that again’ and again she nailed it. Here we are only 14 weeks later and Nia is an NCS Bayshore champion and will go into Friday as one of the top seeds in all of Northern California.”
Shelby took second in the boys 400 in 49.95 with Ma fourth in 50.79. Saniyah Johnson was second in the girls shot put at 32-6 and sixth in the discus at 92-9. The girls 1,600 relay team of Kim, Claire Aubrecht, Daniella Lucaccini and Ella Yasar was second in 4:09.20. The girls 3,200 relay team of Skylar Best, Cora Brozowski Schrader, Caroline Taylor and Nikita Gorelik finished third in 10:13.46.
Meg Foster was fourth in the boys pole vault at 11-3. The boys 400 relay team of Mumtaz, Shelby, Ma and Eric Venner was fourth in 43.47. Shayna Chau was fifth in the girls pole vault at 8-11. The girls 400 relay team of Kim, Yasar, Kyla Williams and Aubrecht was fifth in 50.06.
“The season isn’t done yet but having both the boys and girls teams finishing top 4 in Bayshore is a great feeling,” Assadi said. “We scored in over half the events and took first in four. Only premier teams like St Mary’s and O’Dowd do things like that. That just shows that the coaches have worked hard to put together a consistent season long plan and the athletes are showing up and executing on it.”
Photos by Becky Spies