Below is an excerpt from Del Mar Times – Solana Beach Sun – Carmel Valley News article “Cathedral Catholic repeats as CIF D-II track & field champions; LCC second.“

Saturday’s Girls’ CIF Track & Field Championships at Mt. Carmel High School, the sport’s biggest event of the year on the section calendar, again had a decided North Coastal flavor. Championships were up for grabs in three different divisions and local athletes captured seven individual events while Cathedral Catholic came away with the CIF Division II title for the third consecutive year.

The Don’s victory was their 10th overall under veteran Head Coach Dan Geiger and they more than doubled the point total (143.5-69) of runner-up La Costa Canyon. The Mavericks run to second place was bolstered by five individual gold medals. In the Division I race, won by Steele Canyon (102.5 pts.), Canyon Crest Academy was sixth, scoring 42.5 pts. with Torrey Pines claiming eighth (40).

An array of younger girls found success, particularly on the track where the 24 individual events across three divisions featured just one senior winner while five freshmen collected gold medals.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the local stories coming out of the championship.

The Cathedral Way
Winning doesn’t get old for Geiger. “Obviously the first one was special, but every year it’s a new group of kids, a different storyline,” he said. “We had some adversity this year and the way that the girls responded and rose to the challenge and even exceeded it was amazing.”

While the majority of the prep track and field world seems more focused on producing individual stars and flashy marks, Geiger and his Cathedral Catholic squad just keep bulldozing the competition with depth and stacking up section crowns in the process. Saturday’s win by the Don girls was classic Cathedral—15 different athletes scored points and the majority were scorers in multiple events. It doesn’t happen by accident.

“I think the team approach has been something we’ve focused on since day one,” said Geiger. “We used to be a doormat and I realized there were certain ways to level the playing field or get more competitive.

“We’ve made a conscious effort to spread our talent around, steering kids towards new events where they could be successful. We’ve got great kids who are willing to buy into that model and it doesn’t take much to get kids excited if they start scoring in an event. We’ve also got an outstanding coaching staff and some very talented athletes to build around.”

The adversity Geiger referenced included the loss of senior Kapiolani Coleman, reigning state champion in the 300m hurdles and 2022 CIF runner-up in the 100m hurdles, and 400m standout Izzy Matteson to season-ending injuries. Cathedral will be sending just three athletes to this week’s State meet, juniors Brenna Williams (discus) and Scarlett Martin (3,200m) and freshman Lindsay Zimmer (1,600m), making its wide margin of victory even more impressive.

Thrower Among Don Stars
Williams came from somewhat off the grid to capture the shot put and place second in the discus. Not a complete unknown (she finished sixth in the latter event as a sophomore), she improved more than three feet in the shot put this season and uncorked a personal best of 37-4 on her first throw Saturday to reach the top of the podium.

“Right after I threw it, I knew it was a good one, the technique and set-up were there,” said Williams. “I’ve definitely been focusing on my technique and explosiveness.

“I’ve just been drilling on technique, technique, technique—you can be as strong as possible but if you don’t have technique, it’s not going to go anywhere.”

Zimmer and fellow freshman Anna Wilson each scored in four events and the horizontal jumpers, known as the “flight squad” dominated the long jump and triple jump. Junior Amaya Bryant was second in the former and senior Mia Bento, junior Aliyah Ratcliffe and freshman Kyla O’Donnell all picked up points in both. In keeping with the “team” concept, Cathedral won the 4×100 relay and grabbed second place in both the 4×400 and 4×800 relay events.

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