Eastlake High School’s Jalyn Jackson recorded a rare double at last year’s California state high school track and field championship meet in Clovis by earning a second-place medal in the boys triple jump and a sixth-place medal in the long jump.
Jackson appears poised to collect more hardware at this year’s state meet to close out his high school career as a Titan.
“I was excited to get them (the medals),” Jackson reflected on his performance at last year’s state finals. “I knew I had to bring my A-game both days. I knew I had to bring my best effort to get them.”
Jackson recorded a mark of 48 feet, 5.85 inches in the triple jump; he set a new school record with a mark of 23-4 in the long jump.
As it has turned out, he was just getting warmed up.
The EHS senior already set a new personal milestone by winning the triple jump at last month’s elite Arcadia Invitational with a mark of 49-10.25, which surpassed Jordan Hines’ previous school record of 48-9.5 set in 2011.
Jackson set a personal record in the long jump at 24-2.5 in March’s Mt. Carmel/ASICS Invitational, rewriting his own school record in the event.
A wide receiver/cornerback during the fall football season, Jackson is headed to Cal Berkeley on a rare track scholarship. In that sense, he’s a track and field athlete who plays football and not the other way around.
There are a few things to wrap up before he graduates from high school, however.
The Mesa League finals are scheduled May 10 at Otay Ranch High School, followed by the San Diego Section prelims (May 19) and finals (May 26). The state championships are scheduled June 1-2 in Clovis.
Jackson owns the top marks in the section in both the long jump and triple jump this season.
He also runs the anchor leg on Eastlake’s 4×100-meter relay that posted a season-best time of 43.52 at April’s Jaguar Invitational at Valley Center High School.
Jarret Isaacson, Kevin Bateman and Bernard Coe have run legs along with Jackson this season on the 4×100 relay.
Jackson isn’t finished on the oval. He also ranks among the top 10 sprinters in the section in the 100-meter dash, making him a threat to win any event in which he is entered.
He ran a personal record 11.02 in the 100 dash in an April 5 dual meet against league rival Olympian.
He also leads the Metro Conference with the top time in the 110 high hurdles at 15.66.
Jackson ranks second in the state in the triple jump to Great Oak senior C.J. Stevenson and is ranked among the top five in the state in the long jump.
Jackson said competition in field events is just as mental as it is physical, especially when competing in the two jumps, which are often scheduled back-to-back in meets.
“I didn’t think I’d medal in the long jump (at last year’s state finals),” Jackson said. “It was definitely a confidence boost going into the triple jump. I was one of the few doing both events. I didn’t want to stress out in the long jump but I wanted to give my best performances (in both events). I just had to prepare differently for each one.”
He said he’s taking it easy the final stages of regular season competition before ramping up for post-season competition. He competed in just two events in the Titans’ April 26 dual meet against visiting Bonita Vista — winning both the 100 dash in 11.34 and the 4×100 relay in 43.84.
“I have been competing in a lot of Thursday-Saturday events recently,” he said. “Once we get into league finals, I will ramp up my game.
“Coming off football, we went to the CIF finals, so I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for track. But I take care of my body. I just put more of an emphasis on taking care of my body first.”
Jackson said goals he set for himself this season including hitting 24 feet in the long jump and 50 feet in the triple jump.
He’s already met this goal in the long jump. He’s still going for the latter.
“It’s going to have to come in a big meet but I think I can do it,” he said.
Otay Ranch’s Marques Roberts hit 50-0 at the section prelims in 2011 en route to claiming the gold medal at the state finals with a mark of 49-6.5.
The future, in effect, starts now.
“We knew he was a great jumper but he also has one of the top times in the county this year in the 100, so we’re really happy with his speed and leadership,” EHS coach David Koopman said. “He doesn’t do a lot of talking; he leads more by example — stuff you expect from a captain.”
And a champion.
Runners to watch
Who are some of the athletes to watch at the upcoming league finals?
Two of them went head to head in the April 26 Eastlake-Bonita Vista dual meet: Jeffrey Page for the Titans and Isaiah Labra for the Barons.
Page, a two-time state meet qualifier in the 800-meter run, paired up against Labra, a threat to win any distance from the half-mile upward, in the 800 run. Page led after the first lap but was passed by Labra with about 200 meters to go.
Page regained the lead to win in 1:58.6, a season best. Labra finished second in 1:59.5.
Page is a two-time defending league champion in the 800 run. For most of the season, he’s been working on his speed by competing in shorter events such as the 200 and 400 dashes.
He timed 1:58.6 at the Arcadia meet in midseason. “I led for a while but I didn’t have the endurance I needed to win,” he said. “But now my endurance is stronger. I should be able to challenge to win CIF.”
Page competed in the 800, 1600 and 4×400 relay in the dual meet against Bonita Vista, winning the 800, placing second (to BV’s Toshin Agbede in the 1600) and anchoring a comeback win for the Titans in the meet-closing 4×400 relay.
Eastlake won the 4×400 at last year’s league finals.
Labra won the 3200 distance in a leisurely time, for him, at least, of 10:25 at the Eastlake dual meet. However, he turned heads around the state when he clocked a torrid 9:16.32 at the Mt. SAC Relays on April 20, finishing 13th in a field that included runners from throughout California, Arizona and New Mexico.
El Camino Real senior Justin Hazell posted the winning time of 9:00.60 — Labra was three seconds off from a top 10 finish.
The BV runner’s time ranks second in the section to Cathedral Catholic’s Joaquin Martinez de Phinillos, who finished third in the Mt. SAC race.
Girls pole vault
When Eastlake’s Renna Cozza cleared 10-9 at the 15th annual Phair Co./Mustang Relays on April 21, coaches initially thought she had set a new school record in the event. However, a check of the record book over the weekend showed that Korin Chapman held the mark at 11-0.
The 10-9 mark, however, was a personal record for Cozza, a junior.
Ironically, Cozza notched her PR after turning in her poorest performance on the season by placing sixth with a mark of 7-11 at the preceding Jaguar Invitational on April 14.
“The previous week, I had a really bad meet,” she admitted. “I thought (at the Mustang Relays) to just have fun with it. My legs felt a lot better. I was going really fast (down the runway).”
Cozza, who started competing as a freshman, still has the school record in her sights, however.
“I want to get the school record before I graduate,” she said. “I want to make the CIF finals.”
Cozza was plenty of friendly competition to push her toward that goal. Teammates Natalia Cortes (9-8) and Olivia Czerladko (9-0) have also cleared nine feet.
Chapman went on to place seventh at the California JC state championships in 2014 with Southwestern College by clearing 3.39 meters (11-1).
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Olympian, Otay Ranch end track season with a rush
Olympian traveled to Otay Ranch on Thursday (May 3) for a final tune-up prior to next week’s league prelims and finals. Competition was long on entries in the junior varsity divisions, in particular, as the teams readied for Saturday’s JV prelims at ORHS (9 a.m. start).
Otay Ranch won the boys meet by a narrow margin of 69-67 while Olympian won the girls meet by a more decisive score of 84-52. Otay Ranch recorded the top team scores in both the JV boys and girls matchups.
Loud cheers went up from the Mustangs when the boys final score was announced. The outcome had been in doubt after Olympian appeared to record a win in the 4×400-meter relay, the final running event of the day.
However, the Eagles were later disqualified, giving the win to the Mustangs.
Here are a few snapshot from the varsity competition:
Sprints:
Olympian’s girls team is loaded with runners with fast times. Leading the group are seniors Kolumbia Page and Alyssa Meeks along with junior Adaeze Noble, all returning state meet qualifiers.
Noble qualified for the state meet in the 4×400 relay as a freshman and advanced to the state meet as a sophomore in the 400 dash and both 4×100 and 4×400 relay as a sophomore.
Meeks joined Page and Noble on last year’s state-qualifying 4×100 and 4×400 relay teams.
With three of the four runners on the 4×400 relay team returning this year, there’s a good chance Noble and her teammates could be making a third trek to the state meet come June.
- Alexis Meeks, Alyssa’s twin sister, joins the group this year.
“We all push each other,” Noble said. “When one of us improves, we all end up improving.”
Noble’s top marks during the regular season included 12.61 seconds in the 100 dash, 25.63 in the 200 dash and 57.39 in the 400 dash, all set at the Willie Banks Invitational on March 31. She set the school record in the 400 (56.62) last year.
Alyssa Meeks (12.31) and Page (12.34) paced Metro Conference runners during the regular season with top times in the 100 dash while Page (25.11), Alyssa Meeks (25.56) and Noble (25.63) ranked in that order among the conference’s top 200 sprinters.
Page (56.92) and Noble (57.39) led the conference with the top times in the 400 dash.
The Olympian foursome’s best time this season in the 4×400 relay was the 4:00.63 posted at the Willie Banks Invitational.
The 4×100 relay unit set a school record with a time of 48.17 in an April 5 dual meet against league champion Eastlake.
The fleet-footed group competed in both events at April’s Arcadia Invitational to help prepare for the big meet experience at the upcoming state meet.
Noble, Page and Alyssa Meeks were part of last year’s team along with Jasmine Simmons that set the school record in the 4×400 event (3:54.86).
Shot put:
Otay Ranch’s Dominic D’Andrea recorded a personal record put of 48-4 to capture first place among individuals at March’s Ssweetwater Coed Relays. He won Thursday’s dual competition with a put of 47-3 as he continues to make strides from an early season injury.
The 47-3 mark was his best since the Sweetwater Relays and stood up as the top mark posted by any thrower in the Metro Conference. He previously finished seventh at the Escondido Invitational on April 27 with a mark of 45-7.
Winning marks are, of course, based on competition that day rather than best marks on the season.
“It’s all about hip explosion,” explained D’Andrea, a senior, about the necessary form needed to excel in the event.
He’s hoping to record top marks when they matter most during post-season competition.
“I’m trying to make it to state, be top three in the county,” he said. “I’m seventh now (but) I’m getting better after an early season injury; I’m making a comeback.”
His goal is to hit the 50-foot mark by season end. “It’s a good basis, a good goal,” he said.
Distances:
Olympian senior Nicholas Albro set the school record in the 1600 run at the Viking Relays on April 14 with a time at 4:23.01.
He ranks second on the all-time school records list in the 3200 run — that by a fraction of a second — after posting a 9:28.65 time at the Escondido Invitational.
Diego Arriola set the school record in the 3200 run at 9:28.36 in 2017.
Albo looks to be on course for a furious finish to the 2018 season.
He and teammate Eric Simmons engineered a one-two finish in the 3200 at the Otay Ranch dual meet, though in a somewhat leisurely pace. Albo timed 10:21.07 while Simmons timed 10:27.28.
Pole vault:
Metro Conference leader Nate Sison was dealt with some misfortune while vaulting after his pole broke, sending him into the pit. He continued on a shorter pole to win the dual competition by clearing 11-0.
His best on the season is 13-2 — set March 24 at the Mt. Carmel invite.
He set a season goal of clearing 14-6. “I’ve hit it in practice,” he said.
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Metro Conference Track and Field Leaders
BOYS TOP MARKS
Running Events
100: Jake Curtis (San Ysidro) 11.0; Jalyn Jackson (Eastlake) 11:02
200: Hugo Soberanes (Olympian) 22.38; Jake Curtis (San Ysidro) 22.44
400: Hugo Soberanes (Olympian) 49.54; Mikael Tyler (Olympian) 49.86
800: Jacob Fierro (Southwest) 1:58.56; Jeffrey Page (Eastlake) 1:58.76
1600: Nicholas Albro (Olympian) 4:23.01; Jacob Fierro (Southwest) 4:23.02
3200: Isaiah Labra (Bonita Vista) 9:16.32; Justin Mulvany (Otay Ranch) 9:27.17
110 high hurdles: Jalyn Jackson (Eastlake) 15.66; Nathaniel Mestre (Otay Ranch) 15.95
300 intermediate hurdles: Daishaun Battle (Olympian) 41.45; Davyn Willis (Eastlake) 41.56
4×100 relay: Olympian 43.10; Eastlake 43.52
4×400 relay: Olympian 3:25.05; Eastlake 3:31.29
Field Events
Shot put: Dominic D’Andrea (Otay Ranch) 48-4; Faufano Autele (Otay Ranch) 44-10; Leusumano Ta’a (Otay Ranch) 44-0
Discus throw: Faufano Autele (Otay Ranch) 147-11; Carson Lively (Eastlake) 135-5
High jump: Darian Williams (Otay Ranch) 6-0; Kevin Bateman (Eastlake) 6-0, Chayin Osgood (Olympian) 6-0
Pole vault: Nathan Sison (Otay Ranch) 13-2; Vince Cruz (Bonita Vista) 12-0
Long jump: Jalyn Jackson (Eastlake) 24-2.5; Keyshawn Smith (Southwest) 21-9; Gustavo Carranza (Mater Dei Catholic) 21-8; Zeek Cruz (Otay Ranch) 21-6.5
Triple jump: Jalyn Jackson (Eastlake) 49-10.25; Kevin Bateman (Eastlake) 42-9; Airrien Smith (Castle Park) 42-6.5
GIRLS TOP MARKS
Running Events
100: Alyssa Meeks (Olympian) 12.31; Kolumbia Page (Olympian) 12.34
200: Kolumbia Page (Olympian) 25.12; Alyssa Meeks (Olympian) 25.56; Adaeze Noble (Olympian) 25.63
400: Kolumbia Page (Olympian) 56.92; Adaeze Noble (Olympian) 57.39
800: Luz Mercado (Eastlake) 2:22.57; Keerstin Augustin (Olympian) 2:22.68
1600: Patricia Miessner (Eastlake) 5:13.29; Keerstin Augustine (Olympian) 5:17.55
3200: Patricia Miessner (Eastlake) 10:52.66; Mariana Beltran-Picos (Olympian) 11:48.98
100 hurdles: Alani Johnson (Otay Ranch) 15.29; Nyha Kidd (Eastlake) 16.49
300 hurdles: Emma Gines-Ramos (Otay Ranch) 46.88; Leyla McFarland (Eastlake) 47.44
4×100 relay: Olympian 48.17; Eastlake 49.82
4×400 relay: Olympian 4:00.63; Eastlake 4:18.53
Field Events
Shot put: Haidee Wesale (Hilltop) 36-5; Sydney Kelly (Eastlake) 33-6
Discus throw: Iliana Cortazar (Sweetwater) 98-10; Sydney Kelly (Eastlake) 97-4
High jump: Ana Mercado (Eastlake) 5-0; Kayla Reyante (Bonita Vista) 5-0; Kamaile Signo-Hawkins (Olympian 5-0; Shaniyah Rankin (Olympian) 5-0
Pole vault: Renna Cozza (Eastlake) 10-9; Natalia Cortes (Eastlake) 9-8; Olivia Czeladko (Eastlake) 9-0; Caryme Estrada (Otay Ranch) 9-0
Long jump: Paola Nenninger (Mater Dei Catholic) 17-7; Alexis Meeks (Olympian) 17-0
Triple jump: Paola Nenninger (Mater Dei Catholic) 36-4; Alani Johnson (Otay Ranch) 35-5; A’sontee Jackson (Castle Park) 35-4.5
