Slew of track standouts punch tickets to State

PREPS OF THE WEEK

Annalise Horn of Redwood (center) races in front of Indeya Sanders and Sabine Szylko of Tamalpais in the girls 100-meter dash during the MCAL Track Tri-meet between Archie Williams, Tam, and Redwood at Redwood High in Larkspur in April of 2024. DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN — SPECIAL TO THE MARIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL

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By Ian Ross

iross@marinij.com

Marin track has enjoyed a stellar postseason to this point, with more than a dozen athletes qualifying for State in various events this past weekend.

Those efforts were highlighted by a number of athletes who qualified individually in multiple events — Redwood High’s Annalise Horn, Julia Bayon, and Antonio Bayon, plus San Rafael resident Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius.

Elsewhere, a pair of Tam golfers qualified for the NorCal Championships. Marin Catholic and Tam remained alive in the North Coast Section baseball playoffs.

Julia Bayon, Annalise Horn, Jaden Vangorder, and Jenna Beauchamp, Redwood girls track >> Redwood’s quartet all qualified for the State Meet this coming weekend at Buchanan High in Clovis as a result of their third-place finish as a team in the 4×100 relays at the NCS Meet of Champions on Saturday. The team finished the race in 48.50 seconds to claim an automatic qualifying spot. Bayon and Horn also qualified in two events apiece individually. Bayon was third in the 100 meters with a time of 11.98 then won the 200 in 24.63. Horn took second place in the long jump with a personal record of 19 feet then placed sixth in an exceptionally deep triple-jump field with another PR of 37’9.75” — well clear of the at-large standard to qualify for State.

Caeden Gardner, Cooper Hatch, Dexter Burnett, Nate Wanger, and William Freas, Tam boys track >> The Red-tailed Hawks are also sending a relay team to State after a second-place finish at NCS where Burnett, Hatch, Gardner, and Wanger finished with a time of 3:21.92. Gardner also qualified for the 800 individually after winning the event outright with a PR time of 1:54.62. Freas qualified for State in the pole vault, taking second place with a height of 15’6”.

Ellie McCuskey-Hay, St. Ignatius track >> The San Rafael resident qualified individually for state in three different events following another dominant performance at the Central Coast Section Championship in Gilroy on Saturday. McCuskey-Hay won both sprints, claiming the 100 in 11.78 seconds and the 200 in 24.06 seconds. The CCS only gets two guaranteed spots per event at State but McCuskey-Hay’s third-place mark of 18’6” in the long jump was comfortably better than the at-large standard.

Antonio Bayon, Redwood boys track >> Bayon qualified for the State Meet in two events, narrowly missing a third, with strong performances at NCS on Friday and Saturday. Bayon took third in the pole vault with a mark of 14’2” then took third again in the high jump with a mark of 6’4”. Bayon also finished in fourth place in the 110 hurdles in 14.60.

Hailey Sellers, Farah Allen, Imogen Brown, and Maya Gidney, Branson girls track >> Sellers and Allen came up with second-place finishes at NCS in their respective individual events to punch their tickets to the State Meet. Sellers placed second in the 800 with a PR of 2:12.25. Allen was second in the 1,600 with a time of 4:50.49. Allen and Sellers also ran the last two legs, respectively, as Branson took second in the 4×800 relay to qualify for State in that event with a time of 9:14.07. Gidney ran the first leg and Brown ran the second.

Ani Stieg, Archie Williams girls track >> Stieg finished third in the 1,600 — less than a second after Allen — with a PR of 4:51.12 to ensure she would compete at the State Meet. Stieg also placed fourth in the 3,200 with another PR of 10:34.50.

William Mulliken, Archie Williams boys track >> Mulliken extended his season with a second-place finish in the 1,600 at NCS, crossing the line with a PR of 4:12.20.

Ben Friedman and Hayden Thill, Tam boys golf >> Friedman and Thill both advanced to the CIF State Championship last season and are inching closer to making a return trip after they turned in stellar rounds at the North Coast Section Division I tournament last Monday at Rancho Solano Golf Course in Fairfield. Friedman shot a low round of 67 and was part of a three-way tie for first place. Thill was just two strokes back to finish in fourth place and secure his passage to the NorCal Championships, which are set to take place at Berkeley Country Club in El Cerrito on Tuesday.

James Stocker, Walker Untermann, Jude Baker, and Johnny Greco, Marin Catholic baseball >> The Wildcats advanced to the NCS D-III semifinals thanks to a 7-6 victory in eight innings against Analy followed by an 11-4 win against Kelseyville. Stocker was the standout hitter against Analy, going 4 for 4 at the plate with three RBIs and two runs scored — including the game winner in the eighth. Untermann drove Stocker home with the winning run on a double to center field. Untermann was key again against Kelseyville, pitching five innings while allowing two runs (one earned). Baker and Greco were the hitting stars in that game. Baker had three hits and two RBIs while Greco had two hits and four RBIs, highlighted by a three-run home run to make it 8-0 in the second inning.

Eli Solem, Jackson Van Til, and Tito Fierstein, Tam baseball >> Tam advanced to the NCS D-II semifinals without surrendering a single run in a 4-0 win against University then a 1-0 win against San Marin. Solem worked 6.1 innings, allowing four hits and striking out seven against University. Van Til came on to earn the save, retiring the final two hitters on strikeouts. Van Til was called into action again as a middle reliever in a scoreless game against San Marin. Van Til worked 2.2 innings with three hits and three strikeouts to keep the game tied at 0-0. Fierstein delivered the game-winning hit for Tam, singling in the top of the seventh inning. It was Fierstein’s second hit of the game and his third of the week. He also drove in a run and scored once against University.

Thomara Drummer, San Rafael softball >> Once Drummer found her groove, she was basically untouchable in Friday’s NCS D-IV quarterfinals — a 2-1 loss to Salesian College Preparatory. Drummer, who surrendered a pair of solo home runs in the top of the first, locked in and delivered one of her most impressive outings, piling up a career-high 18 strikeouts to keep San Rafael in the game until the very end. Drummer also retired 15 consecutive batters to end the game and gave the Bulldogs some hope with a leadoff single in the bottom of the sixth.

Taylor Testa and Lauren Fong, San Marin softball >> The Mustangs picked up a victory in the D-I playoffs with Testa pitching a complete game six-hitter. All of Vintage’s runs in San Marin’s 4-3 victory were unearned and Testa struck out five batters. Fong, a senior shortstop, closed out her high-school career by hitting San Marin’s only home run of the season, driving in three runs in a season-ending 11-4 loss to Liberty — the top-ranked team in the section.

Tyler Keehn, Sean McGrath, and Tanner O’Keefe, San Marin baseball >> The Mustangs were eliminated by Tam in the NCS D-II quarterfinals but still put on a pitching clinic allowing just one run over 12 innings against Novato and Tam combined. McGrath worked all five innings against the Hornets, allowing three hits and striking out five. McGrath also contributed to San Marin’s offensive pyrotechnics — the Mustangs won 12-0 — with three hits, two RBIs, and two runs. Keehn had two hits and five RBIs on the day. O’Keefe worked into the seventh inning against Tam, allowing five hits and one unearned run against six strikeouts.