Section track and field champions crowned

Various CIF Sac-Joaquin Section track and field champions were crowned Thursday and Friday over five divisions. Here are some highlights of the local Divisional champions and Masters qualifiers from last week's meets. According to the Sac-Joaquin Section website, D-I qualifies eight in each event from Divisionals to Masters, Divisions II and III qualify six from each event, and Divisions IV and V qualify five from each event. Additionally, any athlete that meets an "at-large" qualifying mark (the average of the ninth place qualifying marks from the past three Masters meets) will also move on to Masters. DIVISION I Whitney High School put together a Master-ful all-around performance on both the boys and girls teams. Sophomore Sydney Johnson claimed gold medals in the girls triple jump with a personal and school record 39 feet, 1.75 inches. Johnson has not lost a triple jump event this season. She also took third in the 100-meter hurdles to qualify for Masters. Teammate Rachel Payan, the two-time defending Section champion in the pole vault, was the runner-up Friday, clearing 11 feet. Johnson joins Payan as Whitney's only female multiple Section champions in school history. Isabel Simmons in the pole vault and the Wildcats' 4x100 relay team also moves on to Masters. Pacing Whitney's boys was junior Caveli Hensley, who claimed gold in both the high jump (6-03) and the long jump (22-01.25). Hensley is Whitney's first ever boys champion in either event. Joey Souto won the boys 400 at 49.49, making it two straight years Whitney has taken the 400 (Andrew Franco). Austin Vasquez was the runner-up n the 3,200 (9:19.98) while Bennett Woodward was fourth (9:23.87). Del Oro's Ryan Mulholland won both the 100- and 200-meter dash. He becomes the school's first Section champion in either of the two sprint events. Golden Eagle freshman Riley Chamberlain added to her incredible freshman season with a 10-minute, 27.92-second, first-place finish in the girls 3,200. Chamberlain was a Section and State champion in cross-country for Del Oro as well. Caiden Macktinger finished third in the pole vault (14-02) and fifth in the high jump (5-11) while Brayden McLaughlin was fifth in the 1,600 (4:20.04) and sixth in the 3,200 (9:33.12). For Granite Bay, junior Megan Ellis placed sixth in the triple jump. Last year, she placed seventh at Masters. Abigail Peterson and Jada Harper had fifth-place finishes in the 400 and 100, respectively. Alexandra Box was sixth in the 200 and eighth in the 100. Tristan Lee was third in the boys 200 (22.35) and sixth in the 100 (11.22). Highlighting Rocklin was the 4x400 team of Andrew Grant, Joshua Morrison, Brendan Dowling and Nathan Kent, who placed second. Jacob Polivka finished sixth in the 1,600. Sofiya Gladysh was seventh in the girls discus (102-05) with a PR and Pearl Burton was eighth in the 1,600 (5:16.21). DIVISION II Roseville's Donovan Jones became the Tigers' first ever high jump champion with a jump of 6-05. He was joined as a gold medalist by Roseville teammates Cierra Bernardy, Analexis Glaude, Alexa Camacho and Madison Sandle, who won the girls 4x400 in 3:59.02. The relay team was also the first 4x4 team to win in Roseville history. Individually, Glaude was fourth in the 400 and Sandle was seventh. Bernardy was sixth in the 400. Senior Candace Henderson was third in the high jump (5 feet). The Woodcreek girls finished fifth overall, led by a runner-up finish by Alex Sandoval in the 800 and third-place marks from Maiya Evans in the 100, Lisa Irvine in the 3,200, Farida Mbarack in the shot put and CJ Blankenship, Valerie Heywood, Kailee Bryant and Sandoval in the 4x400. For the Woodcreek boys, senior Collin Ellis was second in the shot put at 46-06. Anthony DiPentino was fourth in the 800 (2:01.52) and Lucas Reeves was fifth in the 1,600 (4:31.38). DIVISION III Despite fouling out of her strongest event in the discus, Placer senior thrower Shade Sander didn't come away empty-handed. She became Placer's first girls Section champion in the shot put after a throw of 40 feet, 8 inches, a Personal Record. Sander was last year's discus Section champion and she looks to build on an eighth-place finish in last year's Masters shot put. Placer's 4x400 relay team of Riley Lasher, Jill Worthington, Natalie McKnight and Grace Mantsch came in third (4:05.67) and qualified for the Masters meet. Mantsch also qualified for Masters after a third-place finish in the pole vault (10-09). As a team, Placer's girls came in ninth place overall. Vacaville was the D-III girls champion with Vista del Lago coming in second. For the Hillmen boys, who placed 13th overall, senior Jesus Guerra-Reyes finished second in the 1,600 (4:27.35) and Connor Ryan was the runner-up in the 3,200 (9:35.67). Both qualify for Masters. Lincoln's Destiny Everett won the first 3,200 in school history while Alexis Hinojosa made the same type of history in the 300 hurdles – by just four-hundredths of a second. Hinojosa also took runner-up in the 100 hurdles. The Lincoln boys 4x100 team of James Edwards, Kyle Loutzenhiser, Joseph Brown and Chase Williams placed third (43.43). Individually, Brown was second in the 300 hurdles, third in the 300 hurdles and seventh in the long jump. Edwards was fourth in the 400 and Williams was seventh in the 100. Oakmont sophomore Emma Hirsch made it back-to-back Section titles in the high jump, clearing 5-04. She was also a state qualifier last year. Joining Hirsch at the top of the podium for Oakmont was Eliana Baissa, who became the Vikings' first ever girls long jump champion (17-01.75). Sophomore Olivia Smith was third in the triple jump and Michael Lencioni was third in the boys pole vault for Oakmont. DIVISION V Colfax junior Grace Bliss, who won Section titles as a freshman and sophomore in the 300 hurdles, made it a three-peat Friday with a winning time of 45.87. Bliss has also won Section titles in the 100 hurdles as a freshman and in the long jump as a sophomore. Friday, she placed fourth in the 100 hurdles (16.74) to qualify for Masters again. Another repeat champion for Colfax was senior Jacy Dean, who once again took the gold medal in the high jump at 5-01. Junior pole vaulter Preston Sladek came close to repeating as Section champ, but Bear River's Matthew Rodriguez had a clean first look at 14-02 to take home the title. Rodriguez becomes just the second male Section champion for Bear River behind another pole vaulter, Jason McShane. After winning four Pioneer Valley League titles last week, Sarah Aanenson brought home more hardware to Bear River. The junior transfer from Maria Carillo High in Santa Rosa won the triple jump (35-09) and the 200 (25.33). She also qualified for Masters with a second-place finish in the long jump (17-06.5). Aanenson was a state qualifier for Maria Carillo as a sophomore last year. Forest Lake Christian junior Amber Jackson took first place in the 800 (2:18.12) and repeated as Section champion in the 1,600 (5:09.41). Also for Forest Lake, who finished third as a team in D-V, senior Priscilla Jones moves on to Masters after a runner-up finish in the 100 hurdles (16.34) and 300 hurdles (46.79). Senior Lily Sween, last year's Section champ in the high jump, placed third this year (5-00) as well as fourth in the long jump (16-07). Livingston was the overall team champion for D-V girls while Calaveras took the boys team title. Western Sierra junior Sara Sabra became the first track Section champion in Wolves' history as she won the 3,200 in 11:49.72. For a complete list of results and Masters qualifiers, visit www.cifsjs.org.