Tagivakatini Qualifies For State Track Meet

Junior Talei Tagivakatini continued her impressive track season by qualifying for this week’s California State Track Championships in the shotput and discus events. She earned her berth by finishing first in the shot put and third in discus at Saturday’s Meet of Champions in Berkeley. She now holds a school record of 41’ 2” in shotput and personal best of 131’ in discus.

See the following article for a summary of the track season.

Adding Another Mike to the Record
The Albany Cougar track team started the season off with a bang, shattering three school records. Though they lost a number of key members from last year, the skilled team stepped up in a big way. While all members of the team contributed to its outstanding success, senior Mike Gaunt left his mark in the school record books with 42.65 in the 300 hurdles.

Sophomore Tiana Diaz soared above all the other competitors and broke the high jump record with a leap of 4’10”.

Shortly after, junior Talei Tagivakatini confirmed her status as one of the mightiest shotputters in Albany High history. On Saturday, April 25, at the Fred Faucett Invitational, she launched the stone 39’ 6.” beating the previous record set by Rebecca Molinari.

Tagivakatini joined track as a freshman and has since excelled in the shot put and discus events. Her stupendous performance has taken her to the Meet of Champions for the past two years in both events, but she has never been to the State Meet. Since freshman year, she has been working tirelessly to reach that goal.

After breaking the record set by Molinari, her path to state is very clear. Tagivakatini says with a smile, “I made a deal with Rick [Holtzman] that if I broke a record and went to state, I’d get a Letterman’s jacket with all my past accomplishments on it.” She has already achieved one of these goals and is on her way to competing at the second in Clovis this weekend.

When she broke the record at the Fred Faucett Invitational, she was surprised. Before the meet, she was feeling a little apprehensive because the end of the season was approaching and she had yet to reach her goal. “Last week I was thinking about the end of the season and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to break it this year,” she said. But all of her hard work and effort paid off when she finally broke the school record. “When I saw that I had the record, I felt a mixture of relief and a little bit of excitement,” she explained.

On Saturday, May 16, Tagivakatini smothered the competition and won first place in both the shot put and discus events at BSAL. This is Tagivakatini’s third year winning the BSAL competition with a total of six BSAL titles between the two events.

Mike Gaunt, who also competed in the BSAL Championship, triumphed in the 300 hurdle event with an impressive time of 43.01. Gaunt originally joined track to run the 400-meter race, but when he found that that event was not right for him he `looked for a new race to participate in. In the meantime, he spent his practices keeping Matt Petrofsky company on the hurdles. A fast runner, Gaunt found himself excelling in the hurdles. He began to race in the event and beat the standing record Mike Savors, an Albany track star, set during his junior year.

During the meet against Piedmont, the pressure was on; everyone was watching Gaunt, waiting for him to break the record again. As an experienced hurdler, Gaunt focused on his form rather than speed. He spent hours pumping his arms and placing his left foot exactly in the three-meter box.

Gaunt explained his strategy for the season, “whenever I run I try not to think about anything except for where I’m going to put my foot.” All his hard work paid off at the Piedmont meet where he beat his idol, Savors, with a new record of 42.65. But Gaunt remembers having doubts about beating the record: “I was looking at the last hurdle wondering how the hell am I going to get over this.” But no worries for Gaunt: in fact he did leap over that last hurdle and he now sits in the record book next to Mike Savors. “He’s like a legend. And to be up there with him, [it] feels pretty good.”

In addition to the amazing accomplishments by individual athletes, the team’s 5-1 record is proof of its overall success. In their final meet the Albany Cougar track team participated in a dual meet against Piedmont and did exceptionally well: Stephanie Byun placed fifth in the hurdles with a time of 20.05 while Edward Gong glided 19’ 7.5” across the sandpit and placed fourth in the long jump.

Likewise things went well at the BSAL Championships. Junior Varsity Boys placed first overall, Varsity Girls won second place and Varsity Boys received fourth place. Eleventh grader Kevin Liu won first place with a time of 24.58 in the 200 meters. Nolan Tonkyn, a freshman, won first place as well in the 3200 event in 10:25. Finally, Stuart Adams, Aidan Juengling-bean, Kevin Liu, and Tim Clopp ran an outstanding 4X400 in only 3:48.80.

Finally, Chris Gioia ran the 3200 metersin 9:29 at the NCS Meet of Champions at UC Berkeley on May 30. This time is just a few seconds off the school record.

Congratulations runners, throwers, and jumpers!

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