Sale, Jackson both set a pair of meet records as Great Oak sweeps team titles

By Landon Negri for DyeStat

Faimalie Sale knows there was no shame in finishing as the state runner-up in the shot put last year to San Francisco Lincoln’s Obi Amaechi.

Still, though, the Los Alamitos senior is chomping at the bit to get back to CIF State Championships in June.
She certainly made a statement Saturday at the California Winter Outdoor Championships at Arcadia High, when Sale was one of several double winners, but one of just two to set meet records in two events.

Such was the case as the “Winter” championships, even as temperatures hit 80 degrees in the San Gabriel Valley. Sale set new meet marks in the shot put (41 feet, 11.50 inches) and the weight throw (54-6.50).

“I’m extremely motivated,” she said. “I know finishing second to Amaechi --- it wasn’t a bad feeling. But that just grew over the summer and just made me want to get better.”

Sale set two of 14 meet records Saturday, joining Eastlake senior Jalyn Jackson in setting two records. Jackson, who is committed to Cal, did it in the triple jump (48-8) and the long jump (24-5.50).

Great Oak junior Fatima Cortes just missed a second record, through her time of 4:30.55 in the 1,500 soared past the 2016 meet standard of 4:36.08 by Moorpark’s Michelle Magnani.

Cortes led Great Oak’s girls to a 10-point victory over Claremont. The Great Oak boys were up by a single point over Dana Hills with the boys pole vault yet to be scored, but the Wolfpack had three athletes entered and the Dolphins didn’t have any.

Cortes picked up right where she left off in fall in cross country, showing the same tremendous kick that made her a CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion.

She passed leader McKenna Brown of La Costa Canyon with about 250 meters to go and won the 1,500 by more than six seconds. Later in the day, the 3,000 was similar, only this time she outkicked teammate Tori Gaitan to win by two seconds, but missed the meet mark by three.

Although she had a strong finish to her cross country season in California, the Nike Cross Nationals meet in Portland, Ore., was a different tale as her team faded to an eighth-place finish.

“This feels nice, because I didn’t finish the cross country season how I wanted to,” Cortes said.

Cortes has become known for her kick. Asked if she would know what to do leading a race from the start, she said, “I don’t know. I think that’s motivation in a way, because I see who I need to catch.”

Jackson was a state runner-up to Great Oak’s C.J. Stevenson in the triple jump last season and perhaps fired an opening salvo on his journey to return to Buchanan High’s Veterans Memorial Stadium with a two-foot improvement on the 2016 meet record set by Xavier Prep’s Jah Strange. He followed up by winning the long jump on the first of his four attempts to eclipse the 2016 record of 24-1 produced by Tesoro’s Michael Mitchell.

Jackson doesn’t have a jumps coach, but welcomes the responsibility.

“Once the season comes, it’s all me,” he said. “I’ve just got to go out there and do it.”

Other boys meet marks set were Rancho Bernardo senior Josh Farmer in the pentathlon (3,632 points), Los Alamitos senior Kevin Schmitt in the high jump (6-7) and Santiago senior Silas Hurst, who won the weight throw by eight feet (70-10).

Muir’s Micah Fulton bettered the girls triple jump mark with a leap of 41-5, with Santa Catalina’s Lauren Wong improving on her own meet mark in the girls pole vault (13-3).

Temecula Valley’s Danae Dyer lowered her own meet-record time in the 60 hurdles, outdueling Roosevelt senior Breanna Bernard-Joseph in 8.69 seconds.

She said it was “fun” running next to a perennial state qualifier like Bernard-Joseph, and she said she has a new outlook going into her senior track season.

“I feel strong and pretty confident,” she said. “That’s something that’s changed.”

Other girls meet marks set were the Claremont girls distance medley (12:17.75) and the Chino 800 sprint medley relay (1:48.65).

Great Oak’s boys distance medley relay also offered a moment to reflect on the cross country season, and what might be coming next fall, as senior Carlos Carvajal anchored the winning leg to a win over Claremont by a 10:35.40 to 10:36.10 margin.

Disappointed by a seventh-place finish in the 1,500, Carvajal wanted to make the DMR count. He was one of a number of Great Oak runners who donned their NXN jerseys, something that has become a tradition at the winter state meet for those who ran the previous fall in Portland.

“I think this was my 100 percent effort,” he said. “But I don’t know if that was my full speed.”

One competitor not from California also made a statement Saturday, as senior Gizelle Reid from Rancho High in Las Vegas won the 300 in 38.60 seconds and led off Rancho’s winning 4x200 relay, which had a meet-record time of 1:40.43.

“I came out here at the beginning of the season to just get some practice,” she said, “and I just took it to the next level, which is this.”

Valencia senior Jacore Johnson also had a particularly stirring victory, rallying to win the boys 300 in 34.29, just ahead of Dana Hills’ Maxmillian Halvax (34.41).

“Once I hit 100 meters, I started feeling it,” Johnson said. “My legs and my stride start to kick in. My arm swings, and I’m pushing hard, and then my stride pulls me through.”