Audrey Williams
Online Sports Editor
After finishing their Bay League season second to rival Redondo Union, the Mustangs track and field team continued on to California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) preliminaries on Saturday.
After a full day of events, the Mustangs will send six competitors to the CIF Finals on Saturday. The athletes that competed previously qualified by placing in the top three at the Bay League Finals on May 6.
“The entire Costa track team was incredible,” junior Melia Chittenden said. “This year, we’ve had one of the highest numbers of athletes who made it out of Bay League and into CIF.”
Costa sent 15 boys to the preliminaries, but unfortunately none of them placed in the top nine to qualify for the finals. Sophomore Jonah Tavai, who placed 15th in shotput and the 4x400m relay with seniors Fabien Franck Love and Brenton Westbrook, junior David Kirchmeier, and sophomore Andrew Nieto, who placed 15th were the closest to qualifying for the Finals.
Fourteen Costa girls competed in the CIF preliminaries and six will advance to the finals in seven events. Senior Myan Elrington, juniors Chittenden, Shante Robinson, sophomores Jaylah Herron and Alicia Chute and freshman Bridgette Grau are the competitors that will represent Costa in the Finals.
“Everyone from our hurdles to our pole vaulters to our distance runners has worked hard all season and it has paid off,” Chittenden said.
The CIF Finals will take place on May 21 at Cerritos College. Only the top nine athletes from each preliminary event will compete with the Mustangs sending six girls into one of the most competitive meets in the country.
“For Finals, I don’t know what to expect,” Chittenden said. “There are a lot of talented runners in all divisions and knowing that we are going against the top runners is going to make it very competitive.”
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