The Malibu High track and field teams will be well represented at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Preliminaries at Carpinteria High School on Saturday.
Thirteen members of the girls team and seven members of the boys team will be competing in events all over the track and field, including sprints, distance runs, hurdles, pole vault, discus throw, high jump, triple jump and relay races.
Sharks coach John Cary said he expects his athletes to do very well at the event.
“I think that we should have a few who will advance to the finals of CIF,” Cary said.
Two-time track and field state champion and senior Caroline Pietrzyk is leading the way for the girls team. Pietrzyk, along with sophomore Abby Blackwood, will be competing in the girls 1600-meter and 3200-meter dashes.
Freshman Iree Israel will be competing in the 100m dash, while another freshman, Ella McKinna-Worrell, runs in the 400m race. The freshmen, along with seniors Michela Cosentino and Jenna Weinberger, will compete together.
Malibu’s 4x100m relay team will be composed of Blackwood, sophomore Eva Conrad, and juniors Madeleine Ward and Gianna Chaisson. Ward will also run in the 300m hurdles.
Michaela will compete in 100m hurdles, the high jump and the triple jump. Junior Natalie Aldrich and McKinna-Worrell will compete in the high jump, and junior Skylar Washington will compete in the triple jump.
Michaela’s younger sisters junior Joie Cosentino and freshman Sara Cosentino will be in the pole vault competition.
The girls teams’ appearance in the CIF Preliminaries comes a little over a week after they had a successful showing at the Frontier League meet in Santa Paula.
Pietrzyk, who also has titles in cross country, and Blackwood had successful showings in the 1600m and 3200m runs. Pietrzyk, who claimed wins in both events, said the victories were good ones.
“I was happy to have Abby with me the whole time to race with,” she said after the race.
McKinna-Worrell won the 200m with a time of 27.14 seconds. Israel came in second in the 100m with a time of 13.63.
In the 100m hurdles, Michaela posted a time of 17.08, which was good enough for second place. In the 300m hurdles, McKinna-Worrell came in second with a time of 49.39 and Ward came in just under a second behind her at 50.15.
Michaela won the high jump by leaping five feet, zero inches. Junior Natalie Aldrich, Bolander and McKinna-Worrell all tied for third place by jumping 4-08. Michaela also won triple jump with a score of 31-10.00.
The younger Cosentinos tied for tops in the pole vault — Sara and Joie each scored 7-03.
Cary said the girls team got off to a slow start this season because of commitments some of the members had to the girls soccer team. He said they are bouncing back now though.
“All of our junior and senior hurdlers and jumpers didn’t come till late in the season. So in essence they are a month behind,” he said. “If we didn’t have that, I’d say we would be in first in league. They have been slow progressing.”
Boys track has some success
Sophomore Maverick Baglietto is competing in two events for the Shark boys. Baglietto is running in the 110m hurdles and competing in the discus throw. Baglietto finished tops in both events during the Frontier League meet. He had a time of 18.34 in the 110m hurdles and a jump of 5-06 in the high jump.
Sophomore Elijah Redclay is running the 100m dash for the Sharks, and senior Julian Page is running the 800m run. Senior Alex Wilimovsky is running the 1600m dash.
Three Sharks are competing in the pole vault: junior Devin Sarantinos, senior Colby Parker and sophomore Tommy Laubender. At the league meet, Sarantinos finished first in the event with 13-00 and Parker finished second with 9-09.
Cary said the boys team is young and lacks seniors, but grew a lot throughout the season.
“We have a lot of young boys on the team that competed very well,” Cary said.
