Track and Field: San Ramon Valley Boys Varsity Wins EBAL Championship

The San Ramon Valley varsity boys track and field team simply devoured the competition Saturday at the East Bay Athletic League championships at California High.  The Wolves finished the day with 150 total points to finish ahead of second-place De La Salle (90 points) and third-place Amador Valley (82). 

San Ramon's Kevin Griffith set a school record of 4:15.53 in the 1600 meter run. Griffith finished a mere 1.26 seconds off the pace of Micheil Jones' EBAL record that has stood for 14 years.  Teammate Parker Deuel took second at 4:19:45.

Griffith broke Scott Bauh's 2004 school record of 4:15.90.  Bauhs went on to become an All-American at Chico State. The 1600 isn't even Griffith's best event. He set the EBAL record in the 800 last year with a time of 1:53.89.  Griffith won the event in 1:55.59 on Saturday.

Griffith plans to run track at U.C. Davis next year.

Griffith's sister, Sarah, won the 200 meters in 25.56 and the 400 in 57.51.

A pack of Wolves finished one-two-three in the 400 meters, with the win going to Dan Davis in 49.05.  Garrett Storms was second in 49.48, followed by Ian Padilla-Jong at 49.59.

"All three of them broke 50 seconds, which was a big goal for them," San Ramon coach Tim Stevens said. "It's just really exciting."

Both the Wolves' 400 relay (Dan Davis, Chris Brooks, David Manuel and Jake Pulos) and 1600 relay (Griffith, Davis, Storms, Padilla-Jong) teams finished first, and Colin Barber had the top pole vault of the day at 14-foot-6.

"A lot of our contributors are seniors this year, so they stuck around for four years, and are finishing off their careers here on a really high note," Stevens said.  "We haven't had a group of seniors like this in about four years, so it's pretty special." 

How is Stevens, a 1998 alum, going to celebrate? 

"I'm going to chaperone the senior ball," he said.

The Monte Vista girl's frosh/soph team edged Carondelet, 107 to 102, to take home top honors in its division.  The girls' varsity team finished third with 72 points, just behind San Ramon Valley (74).  Cal's varsity girls team racked up 143 points to win its division.

The highlight of the day for Monte Vista was the girls' 1600 varsity relay.

Nina Rondoni, who is "the second fastest girl on the relay team," according to coach Austin Glimme, woke up Saturday morning unable to compete due to a severe allergic reaction. 

Relay member Mikaela Hammitt, who was injured earlier in the season and has been running only five weeks, came in second in the 800 meters in 2:18.79.  She still had her doubts about being able to hold off San Ramon Valley in the 1600 relay, however.

"We had the best time going in, but we didn't know what was going to happen, especially with the Rondoni thing," Hammitt said. "We tried to tell ourselves that we weren't nervous, but we definitely were."

Rachel Call filled in for Rondoni and the girls (Call, Hammitt, Kaeli Hancock, Haley Perkins) posted a winning 4:01.95, almost identical to the time they ran with Rondoni.

"We were just pushing it," Call said.  "We really wanted to win."

"We had to switch out our second-best and put in our fifth-best, and she did just as well," Glimme said.  "Huge kudos to all of them.  Fantastic job."

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