Catlin Gabel Track Teams Overcome Personnel Losses To Become Big Players in the 3A Landscape
Junior Dawit Dean sprinting down the back straight. Photo taken by Tom Widdows
THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A “REBUILDING YEAR.” - Hansen Lian (2018)
The “rebuilding year” has been a major theme for most of the sports teams at Catlin Gabel, following the exit of an extremely athletically gifted Class of 2018. Despite this, our Eagles have still had success across the board the 2018-19 academic year. Here are some highlights:
Sophomore Sophia Spry throwing a javelin. Picture taken by Tom Widdows
Freshman Sophia Mauro participating in the 100m Dash. Picture taken by Tom Widdows
The volleyball team won their first League Championship in school history.
Our girls soccer team made it to the finals for the fourth year in a row.
Our boys soccer team made it to the finals for the third year in a row, and won their second state championship in three years.
Our girls cross country team won the state championship.
Two boys cross country athletes (Will Leonard and Jimmy Maslen) finished first and second at cross country districts.
Our boys basketball team made it to the state tournament again.
The girls swimming team finished second at state.
The baseball team beat Rainer for the first time in many years.
There can be an argument made, however, that no other program has suffered more loss than the Track and Field teams. These losses were Andrew Look, Maya Rayle, Rowan Hoffman, and Juma Sei, four of the team’s main contributors and point getters last season.
This year, in what is apparently true Catlin Gabel fashion, our track teams are in position to continue this success. The lists below do not necessarily do justice to the depth that both teams possess, but here’s a list of a few notable contributors from both teams:
The girls team is headlined by junior stars -
Lila Fenner: An elite distance runner. While her distance running ability alone makes her a star athlete, it’s her diverse array of skills that sets her apart from other elite runners, such as OES’s Stephanie Finley, as Lila is also the school record holder in the pole vault.
Caroline Cook: Caroline can run both sprints and mid-distance at a high level and is ranked near the top in 3A for four different events.
Alyssa Zhang: A former mid-distance runner, she decided to focus her attention on the two horizontal jumping events this year. Ranked third in the district in both long and triple jump, she adds major value to this primarily distance-heavy squad.
Corrine Walton-Macauley: One of 3A’s top sprinters, Corrine has leapt into the top ten in four events as well. Caroline and Corrine are on the 4x100-meter and 4x400 relay teams, which are ranked 7th and 2nd in the state respectively.
Anousha Greiveldinger: Not running this year due to injury, she has contributed an exceptional amount to the team in the past two years.
There are some other major contributions coming from ninth graders Alexandria Nagy and Kendrick Dahlin, just to name a few.
The boys team features a very balanced scoring attack, with fairly equal amounts of scoring coming from:
Will Leonard: Will is ranked first overall in all of 3A for the 3000-meter, as well as top ten in the 1500 and is one of the top distance runners in the state.
Dawit Dean: Dawit is ranked second in the 800, third in the 1500, and sixth in the 400 in all of 3A. He spent time on the 4x100 relay team before leaving it to focus on other events.
Justin Veimau (Me!): I specialize in long jump, triple jump, and 110-meter hurdles. I am second in 3A in long jump as well as top 10 in 3A in triple jump.
Jimmy Maslen: Jimmy has spent all of this track season sidelined with injury, and he is working to get better. He is registered for the 800-meter race this year at districts.
Miles Grant: Miles is an elite jumper. He is ranked second in all of 3A with his high jump of 6 feet and 3 inches. He is also ranked second in our district for triple jump, with a hop skip and jump of 37 feet and 7 inches.
Hopefully the track and field team can continue this year’s theme of success during a rebuilding year.