LOS GATOS — Bellarmine junior Josh Haven won both hurdle races Saturday at the Central Coast Section Top 8 Invitational at Los Gatos High.
He also took third in the high jump to finish as the top points scorer in the boys meet.
A multi-event talent to be sure, and he’s just scratching the surface. A week ago he competed in the decathlon at the Arcadia Invitational and set a CCS record with a score of 7,133 points in his first attempt at the 10-event measure of all-around ability. His score was also the highest ever by a high school junior in state history.
Saturday at Top 8 he won the 110 high hurdles in 14.15 and the 300 hurdles in 38.07. Both marks were personal bests and tops in the section this season.
His high hurdle time is getting close to the 14.0 barrier.
“That is the goal right now,” Haven said. “With more races and good competition I think it can happen.”
Ellie McCuskey-Hay of St. Ignatius was the top individual performer in the girls meet, winning the 100 (11.55), 200 (23.96) and the long jump (18-9 ½). She nearly brought home a fourth first-place finish in the 4×100 relay, charging down the home stretch on the anchor leg, making up a deficit and finishing just behind Los Gatos. Both teams were clocked in 48.39.
“I want to PR in the 100, run sub-11.5,” McCuskey-Hay said. “I’m right there, it’s just a matter of putting it all together, getting out of the blocks a little faster and staying down a little longer.”
Mountain View’s Hannah Rutherford, the second-place finisher at the state 400 a year ago, won her specialty in 54.82 — a disappointing time for her, if not for anyone else.
“I was hoping to go under 54,” she said. “I’m hoping to break the CCS record (52.83 set by Mills’ Leslie Maxie in 1984). Definitely a difficult goal, but I think if things come together and I train well the next month or so, it’s definitely within reach.”
The 53.70 Rutherford, a Stanford commit, ran last year at the state meet is third-fastest in CCS history
McCuskey-Hay and Rutherford met up in the 200 with the St. Ignatius junior just nosing out Rutherford, 23.96 to 24.00.
The biggest breakthrough performance at the meet came pretty much inarguably from Woodside’s Mattheo LaCasia, who won the boys 400 in 47.22, 10th fastest in CCS history. In his first year running track, LaCasia’s previous best was 48.88, so his time Saturday was a staggering improvement.
“He said he wasted three years of his life playing soccer,” Woodside jumps coach Mesha Spivey said. “Soccer scholarships are hard to come by. He’s already been offered a track scholarship by UC Davis. Highly intelligent, very coachable. I guarantee you, by the end of this season he’ll have colleges all over coming after him.”
Hillsdale’s Sineth Andrabadu and Piedmont Hills’ Jonas Petty traded off in the boys 100 and 200, Andrabady won the 100 in 10.65 with Petty second (10.71). Petty won the 200 in 21.50 with Andrabadu right behind in second (21.51).
Serra’s Luke Lewis, a two-time CCS champion and Stanford commit, won the shot put at 58-11 ½. He has cracked the 60-foot barrier twice this season.
“In practice I’m throwing 62, 63,” Lewis said. “I want to throw 65, keep extending the Serra record, beat my dad, who threw 63-4 in high school (at Lincoln-San Francisco).”
Woodside’s Evan Usher took second in the shot at 57-6 ½. Usher, a standout running back in football the last two years, came back to win the discus with a throw of 169-0. In his first year throwing the discus, Usher has the best mark in the CCS at 172-1.
So will it be football or track and field in college?
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Other winners in the boys meet include Noah Gonzalez of St. Ignatius, a double winner in the long jump (22-9 ¾) and the triple jump (46-3), Benjamin Bouie of Crystal Springs Uplands in the 1,600 (4:12.26), Aydon Stephanopoulos of Los Gatos in the 3,200 (8:59.41) and Silver Creek’s Mio Descious in the pole vault (15-6). Los Gatos won both the 4×100 (42.04) and 4×400 (3:19.79) relays. Bellarmine took first place in the 4×800 relay with a time of 8:03.67, just ahead of Menlo School (8:03.71).
Other winners in the girls meet include Menlo-Atherton’s Sara Nordlund, a double winner in the 100 hurdles (14.81) and the 300 hurdles (44.38), Maya Wastie of St. Francis in the 800 (2:14.16), Palo Alto’s Kinga Czajkowska in the 1,600 (4:49.22), Los Gatos’ Shea Elmore in the 3,200 (10:47.14), Mitty’s Maya Ifo Desai in the discus (140-1), Monta Vista’s Lelani Laruelle in the high jump (5-6) and Burlingame’s Avery Boyse in the pole vault (12-6).
Monta Vista’s Clara Fan took second in three events, the long jump, triple jump and high jump.
Palo Alto took first place in the 4×800 relay (9;29.76) and St. Francis took individual honors in the 4×400, winning by a large margin in 3:55.27.
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