Historic long jump among highlights at CCS Top 8 Meet

The 39th Annual CCS Top 8 meet once again did not disappoint as the majority of the top CCS athletes gathered yesterday at Los Gatos HS for the best section meet in California. The meet was full of highlights which you will see below but the star of the show was once again, St. Ignatius senior, Alex Enos

Last season, Enos had a best of 21'11" and was unable to qualify to the CCS Trials as he finished in 5th place at the WCAL final. This season, Enos has really stepped up his effort and came into the CCS Top 8 meet with multiple efforts over 23 feet including a best of 24'2.5". 

During the long jump competition on Friday, there was a sudden burst of energy around the pit after one of his jumps. Word quickly spread that he had long jumped 25'0" which is the top mark in the nation. It is also the 4th best jump in CCS history trailing only Johnny Cleveland Soquel 26'0" 1984, Johnny Johnson Pacific Grove 25'4.75" 1965 and Phil Quinet Homestead 25'2" 1968.

In something that may be only of interest to me, one of the officials working the long jump was Joy Upshaw whose father Monty is one of the legendary high school long jumpers who broke Jesse Owens national record in 1954 and is in the Cal Berkeley Hall of Fame. Joy's sister Grace qualified for two Olympic teams in 2004 and 2008 in the long jump. Joy is also one of the finest masters competitors in Track and Field so needless to say, that is one talented family. 

Here are some other highlights from the meet: 

  • Dynamic Silver Creek duo Arianna Fisher and Jazlynn Shearer scoring victories in the 100m hurdles (Shearer in 14.14), long jump (Shearer 20'1") and triple jump (Fisher 42'9").
  • Logan Flores of Gilroy destroying the pole vault field with new best of 16'1.5"
  • Evergreen Valley sophomore sprint sensation with new bests of 10.98 and 21.91.
  • Valley Christian SJ boys and Monte Vista girls with CCS-leading 42.49 and 47.95 400 relay victories.
  • Hawa Kamara of Leigh with a new meet record 55.29 in the 400m, victory in the 200m in 25.03 and 2nd in the triple jump with 41'6.5".
  • Jorge Estrella of Andrew Hill winning super competitive 3200m with a time of 9:20.16
  • Charlotte Tomkinson of Menlo winning the 1600m with new best of 5:03.43
  • Isabelle Cairns of St. Francis winning the 800m with personal best 2:13.01
  • Mari Friedman of Santa Cruz with solo victory in 3200m with a time of 10:48.33
  • Soquel girls become the only team in CCS to break 4 minutes in 1600m relay with a time 3:59.64
  • Laurel Wong of Santa Catalina with 13'0 winning mark in pole vault
  • Elijah Folau of Serra with lifetime best 55'7" shot put victory
  • Masaki Wada-Law of Los Gatos with 14.58 victory in 110m hurdles