Heart and Sole - Redwood Empire Athlete of the Week

Heart and Sole Redwood Empire Athletes of the Week!

In an effort to recognize the hard work and achievements of the Track & Field athletes throughout the Redwood Empire,
we have the Redwood Empire Athlete of the Week award!
Each week, one boy and one girl will be awarded a custom silk-screened tech shirt in recognition of that week's accomplishments.
Stay tuned here and on our Facebook and Instagram pages for the winners each week.

Which Week will be your turn?

Athlete of the Year

Bryson Trask (SR) - Middletown High

Gabby Peterson (SR) - Healdsburg High

Week Twelve (Meet of Champions)

Kalathan Laiwa-McKay (JR) - Ukiah High

Lillian McCoy (JR) - Casa Grande High

Week Eleven (NCS Redwood)

Zavier Rodrigues (JR) - Maria Carrillo High

Izel Zamora (SR) - Santa Rosa High

Week Ten

Brayden Glascock (SR) - Santa Rosa High

Over the last four years Brayden Glascock has been one of the best hurdlers in the Empire. Now he can say he’s one of the all-time greats after his win at the NBL Championships as his time of 38.76 in the 300 meter intermediate hurdles broke Santa Rosa High School’s 35 year old school record. The time also shot Glascock up to 5th all time in the Redwood Empire. Not only did he dominate the 300 hurdles, he also took a very close second place finish to Carrillo’s Zavier Rodrigues in the 110 meter high hurdles. His time of 15.17 was just 2 hundredths of a second behind Rodrigues, and was the 22nd fastest 110 time in Redwood Empire history and second fastest in Santa Rosa High School history.

Taelor Roderick (SR) - Middletown High

Week Nine

Bryson Trask (SR) - Middletown High

Dominance. There’s no other way to describe Middletown senior Bryson Trask’s performance at the Cloverdale Track and Field meet, featuring seven small schools from the area. Trask won both the shot put and discus by ridiculous margins. His mark of 172’ even in the discus won the event by over 50 feet and his shot put mark of 51’9” won that event by over 15 feet. Trask’s two big wins were not a fluke either, as he has been dominant in both throws at practically every meet he has gone to this season.

Lakemoon Lakemoon (FR) - Santa Rosa High

Santa Rosa high school freshman Lakemoon Lakemoon had a pair of big wins in the horizontal jumps against Windsor. Her marks of 15’ 10.5” in the long jump was a big win for her, winning by over 8 inches. The triple jump was an even bigger win, as Lakemoon’s jump of 33’ 3” won her that event by over a foot. Lakemoon’s 10 points on the day helped the Lady Panthers to seal their 2019 NBL-Oak Championship.

Week Eight

Mason Adams (SR) - Maria Carrillo High

Maria Carrillo senior Mason Adams had a phenomenal performance this week, highlighted by his new PR of 6’-4” in the high jump and victory at the Viking Track Classic, moving him into second all time for Carrillo high jumpers. Adams also took second at Viking for the long jump, his 19’-7.75” jump was just half an inch from his second victory of the day but he had to settle for second. But those weren’t his only impressive feats this week. Three days prior in a dual meet against Windsor, Adams leaped to victory in both the high and long jump, jumping 6’ even and 19’-10” respectively. Adams also took second in the triple jump with a mark of 37’-6”.

Anika Williams (SR) - Santa Rosa High

Santa Rosa senior Anika Williams was undefeated this week. In her first meet of the week, a dual meet with Piner, she sprinted to victory in both the 100 meter high hurdles as well as the 300 meter intermediate hurdles, with times of 16.7 and 49.7 respectively. Then, three days later, at the Viking Track Classic, Williams saw two more victories in the two hurdle races. She won the invitational section of the 300 meter intermediate hurdles, with a time of 47.88, the fastest time of the day, as well as a victory in the 100 meter high hurdles in the varsity section, where she ran a time of 16.60.

Week Seven

Reanne Ball (SR) - Piner High

Piner senior Reanne Ball, arguably the best long and triple jumper in the NBL, showed off his skills away from the long jump pit in Piner’s dual meet with Maria Carrillo. As expected, Ball dominated the horizontal jumps, winning both long and triple jump with marks of 20’2” and 40’7.75” respectively but that wasn’t all. Ball also picked up his third victory of the day in the 300 meter intermediate hurdles, running a time of 44.4 seconds, which was over a second faster than second place. And Ball’s day didn’t stop there, he also took a very close second place in the 100 meter dash, his time of 11.9 was just .2 seconds out of first. Ball also helped lead the Prospectors to a win in the 4x100 meter dash. Excluding the relay, Ball’s 18 points accounted for over a third of Piner’s points on the day.

Leah Haley (SR) - Montgomery High

Distance runners often have it the hardest when it comes to doubling and very rarely tripling at meets but Montgomery senior Leah Haley in her dual meet against Windsor quadrupled. Haley showed off her versatility from the 400 meter dash to the 3200 meter run, winning three of four races, only faltering in the 800 meter where her teammate Mariah Briceno beat her, but besides that, Haley was untouchable. She won the 400 meter dash by over a second, running 63.2, narrowly took second place in the 800 meter run with a 2:33.3, won the 1600 meter run by three seconds with a 5:38.0 and dominated the 3200 meter run with a ten second victory, running 12:58.6.

Week Six

Logan Moon (JR) - Casa Grande High

Last season, as a sophomore, Casa Grande’s Logan Moon’s 800 meter personal best was 2:09, halfway through his junior season his personal best is 1:54.70. Moon’s 1:54 was ran at this year’s Arcadia Invitational, where he took fourth place in his heat of the open 800. His incredible run puts him sixth all time for juniors in the 800 ever in the Redwood Empire, his time puts him just .35 of a second behind another Casa Grande great, Nicholas Rauch, who ran 1:54.35 as a junior, as well as 17th all time, and puts him as the NCS leader for the 800. This is not to mention that Moon had already run an 800 the night before in the 4x800 meter relay, where his team took 18th in the seeded race, and then he came back later that day and ran the 800 meter leg of Casa Grande’s distance medley relay, where they took seventh in seeded section.

Gabby Peterson (SR) - Healdsburg High

Healdsburg superstar Gabby Peterson put on a show at the Arcadia Invitational. At her last Arcadia, Peterson ran in the invitational 3200 meter run, which is debatably one of the best 3200 meter races in the United States every year, and finished ninth in a time of 10:25.15. That time is the fastest time ran by anyone in the North Coast Section so far this season, and is the fifth fastest girl’s 3200 in Redwood Empire history.

Week Five

Samuel Davison (JR) - Cardinal Newman High

At the prestigious Stanford Invitational, Cardinal Newman junior Samuel Davison competed in both the discus and the shot put, placing third and 15th respectively in his two events. His first throw of the day in the discus proved to be his best, throwing 49.78 meters, which is the 31st best mark in Redwood Empire history, and the seventh best mark by a junior in Redwood Empire history. His mark in the shot put did not place him as well but his mark of 12.91 meters is very respectable, nonetheless.

Harper McClain (SR) - St. Helena High

Small league meets aren’t usually the first place many track and field enthusiasts expect to see school records shattered and blazing fast times, but St. Helena sophomore Harper McClain proved that isn’t always the case. McClain took the victory in both the 1600 meter run as well as the 3200 meter run. In her first meet of the season, yes her FIRST meet of the season, she broke the school record in both events, running 5:10 in the 1600 and 10:52 in the 3200. The latter is the 15th fastest 3200 meter run in girl’s Redwood Empire history. This is all not to mention that she won the 1600 by 34 seconds. Keep an eye out for this star sophomore.

Week Four

Matthew Mason (SR) - Casa Grande High

Despite a downpour at the Santa Rosa Twilight Invitational, Casa Grande senior Matthew Mason still managed some fast times, along with a victory in the 200 meter dash and a second place finish in the 100 meter dash. The Gaucho senior took the 200 meter victory in a time of 23.23 (+0.5) which won the race by over half a second. Mason barely missed out on a 100 meter victory, running a time of 11.31 (+0.7), just behind Maria Carrillo’s Severin Ramirez who ran a 11.17.

Sydney Dennis (SR) - Petaluma High

The versatile Petaluma High School senior showed off her skill both on the track and in the field at the Santa Rosa Twilight Invitational. Dennis finished second in both hurdle races, finishing the 100 meter high hurdles in a time of 17.43 (+1.5) and the 300 meter low hurdles in 51.19, which made her the VVAL leader in the event, despite heavy rain. In the field, Dennis dominated in both the long jump and triple jump. Her mark of 15’10” in the long jump was the best of the day by over a foot and her 35’5.75” mark in the triple was not only the best triple jump mark by anyone in the Redwood Empire thus far, but also won the event by over two feet.

Week Three

Pierce Kapustka (JR) - Maria Carrillo High

Maria Carrillo junior Pierce Kapustka had an outstanding 1600 meter performance at the Dublin Distance Fiesta, winning the Sombrero Heat in a time of 4:22.97, just barely off of his personal best of 4:22.32. Kapustka edged out his teammate Colton Swinth for the victory, as the pair put on a show in the last 200 meters, moving up from mid-pack to the lead. Kapustka’s victory was the first at Dublin by an Empire athlete since Santa Rosa’s Aimee Holland won the 800 meter in 2016.

Sierra Atkins (SR) - Analy High

Analy senior Sierra Atkins had a phenomenal performance against Piner this week. Atkins won both the 800 and the 3200 meter, in 2:17.28 and 11:00.85. Not only did she win the two races, she dominated them. Her 2:17 800 meter was 17 seconds better than the next fastest time, and her 11 flat 3200 meter was a jaw dropping two minutes and thirty-five seconds faster than second place. Her entirely solo efforts just make the already impressive marks even more impressive. Watch out for Atkins this season.

Week Two

Eric Portillo (SR) - Fort Bragg High

Fort Bragg’s Eric Portillo was the only double winner on the boy’s side in individual events. He took the victory in the 110m Hurdles and the 400m Hurdles. He won the 110’s in a time of 16.43. he also won the 400m hurdles, an over distance race for the high school level, in a time of 61.84. He won the race by nearly four seconds.

Bria Keelty (SR) - Santa Rosa High

Santa Rosa senior Bria Keelty, had a long day at the North Coast Track Extravaganza. She competed in her main event, Pole vault, as well as three relays: 4X100m, the Distance Medley Relay and Sprint Medley Relay. She took first in pole vault in a vault of 8’ 6” on a windy, rainy day, helped obtain a first-place finish in the SMR and 4X100m, and fourth in the DMR. She was the second leg in the 4x100m, where they ran a 53.16, and the 200m leg in the SMR where they ran away from the competition in a time of 1:55.10.

Week One

Dante Godinez (SR) - Healdsburg High

In a stacked 1600m race, the question of who would win out of some of the league’s best milers from last year, was in the air. Through two and a half laps there was a tight pack of five in front of the rest of the field. Nearing completing three laps, Healdsburg’s senior Dante Godinez took a big jump out in front of that front pack and maintained the lead for the rest of the race, finishing in the only sub-4:30 mile of the day, 4:29.49. He later competed in the 800m, which ended up being quite the race coming down to a final lean beating his competitor by .01 seconds. He was one of few double winners at the Big Cat Invitational.

Kassidy Schroth (FR) - Santa Rosa High

SRHS freshman, Kassidy Schroth, had quite the track debut winning two individual events and helping take home the 4X100m victory. She started her day running the relay where the SRHS girls ran 51.98. Schroth then ran a 12.98 100m, beating her competition by just over half a second. That race put her as the 7th fastest freshman and the 31st wind legal runner all-time. She then competed in the 200m later that day and again ran over half a second faster than the rest of the field, becoming the 35th fastest all time in the 200m.

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Athletes of the Week are picked solely by the Heart and Sole staff, but we greatly value input from local COACHES. If any coach from the Empire has an athlete they wish to nominate, please contact us.