Winter Wrap

A tradition has caught on with The VS Winter Championships and a great turnout with families and teammates to cheer on these high school athletes. Now the Winter Season has wrapped up and the Spring Season will begin in just a couple weeks.

Speed was promised and SPEED was delivered. If you blinked you may have missed it but defending CIF State Champion Brandon Arrington cruised through the 60 meter Prelims (6.81), came back in the Finals and beat the meet record of 6.72 exploding out of the blocks to cross the line at 6.67 seconds. Then he came back in the 150m with his sites on Max Thomas' record of 15.90 set in 2022. He not only beat the record but crushed it by finding another gear coming off the turn and crossing the line at 15.26 more than a half a second ahead of the previous record. Jack Stadlman was close to the old record at 15.97 in second.

Stadlman came back later to win the 300m in a time of 33.00 just a tenth off the meet record.

The Ladies didn’t eclipse any running records but showed up quite well, too. Christina Gray won the 150m in 17.75 with her teammate Kaitlyn Williams finishing fourth (17.96), and teammates Justine Wilson and Maliyah Collins finished second and third respectively (17.83-17.91). Gray and the freshman Collins sprinted to second and third in the 60m (7.53-7.58) behind Ellie McCuskey-Hay who won in a time of 7.49.

The girls efforts at surpassing field event records started early though with one of the first events of the day. In the Girls Shot Put Junior Jaslene Massey--who finished third at the CIF State meet last season--won the event and broke the meet record with her toss of 47’0.25”. That mark is also a new lifetime best.

Davis Benson matched the meet record of six feet nine inches in the boys High Jump set by DeShawn Banks last year. In the Girls High Jump Jillene Wettland just missed the record, she cleared five feet ten inches to equal her personal best.

Michael Cullen cleared over 16 feet for the second time this season going 16’1” for the win. He then had the bar set at 16’4” to go after Tate Currans’ (now coaching at UCLA) meet record of 16’3" but was ultimately unsuccessful.

In the first distance event of the day Senior Megan Crum won the 1500m 4:36.26 starting the season right where she left off last season as a CIF State Medalist. Sophomore Isabella Wroblewski finished second at 4:39.00 showing why she made the State meet last season in the 800 meters. Crum came back to give a great effort in the 3000m running 9:54.64 just a half second behind Charlotte Hopkins who won in a time of 9:54.09.

Liam Miller was a double event winner. He destroyed the meet record in the Boys 3000m running 8:26.46 taking down the record by almost six seconds. Earlier in the day he won the 1500m running 3:55.10.