GILROY—Oakwood’s Maryam Moghaddami is enjoying a week off at a good time.
At the end of the Avis Kelley Invitational at Gilroy High School on Saturday, she admitted her times weren’t where she wanted them to be because her legs weren’t feeling the best.
If needing to get her legs back under her is what Moghaddami needs, then by all means give it. All she did with legs that needed a rest was set a PR in the 100-meter hurdles and was less than 0.4 seconds off her PR in the 300m hurdles and went sub 52 seconds for just the fourth time in her high school career.
“I’m happy with the times that I got. It’s still the beginning of the season, so I feel get better,” Moghaddami said.
The sophomore took fourth in the 100m hurdles with a personal best in 17.29. She followed that up with a third place performance in the 300m hurdles with a time of 51.72.
Moghaddami was 0.34 seconds off her PR time set at the Saint Francis Invitational on March 18.
Moghaddami was one of four athletes from Oakwood who competed Saturday, joining athletes from Live Oak and Sobrato who all combined for 15 Top 10 finishes on the varsity level.
“It’s fun. Oakwood is pretty small, so we’re closer now because usually it’s the three of us doing the invitationals,” Moghaddami said. “We get to hang out and see each other more. And Live Oak is a lot of fun because we train together. We get to see each other, support each other and have a friendly rivalry at some level.”
Sobrato had eight of those finishes, including two Top 5 finishes.
Live Oak only brought a handful of competitors, but had great success with a first place finish, a second place and a fourth.
Leading off was Kaylah Grant who set a PR in the 1600m race despite finishing more than five seconds back of the winner, who set her own PR time.
Grant edged out Aptos’ Marea Zlatunich by 0.16 seconds with a personal best 5:01.02. Both, however, were well back of Mari Friedman from Santa Cruz who smashed her way to a PR 4:55.93.
And as drastic as the difference between first and second was (and as tight as second and third was) the difference between second/third and fourth place was even starker.
Santa Cruz’s Anaya Ward was 14 seconds back of Grant with a time of 5:15.33.
Still, Sobrato’s Emily Harris took 10th in the 1600m 5:29.24.
Harris also turned in a strong performance in the 800, finishing with a season best 2:28.86 to take sixth. She was less than a second out of taking fourth, behind San Lorenzo Valley’s Kayla Penny who finished in 2:28.02.
Grant found her stride in her premier race, finishing first in the 3200m with a time of 11:01.24, finishing 53 seconds ahead of Lila Roake of Santa Cruz.
Coming in 10th overall was Nicole Owens who finished in 13:48.29.
Also finishing in the Top 5 was Brian Williams who took third in the triple jump with a PR leap of 40 feet, 1.25 inches.
His teammate Zaria Kelley had her own Top 5 finish in the triple jump with a fourth place with a leap of 32 feet, 6 inches.
Kelley followed it up with a PR leap in the long jump with a 14-foot, 8-inch jump.
Staying with the field events, Live Oak’s Brenden White had two Top 10 finishes in the throwing events.
White took fourth in the shot put with a toss of 44 feet, 11.5 inches, coming in a half inch ahead of San Benito’s Daniel Pasillas.
He followed that up with a PR performance for ninth place with a throw of 126 feet, 1 inch in the discus.
Rounding out the day for Live Oak was Lindsey Hillesland who took 10th in the triple jump with a PR leap of 28 feet, 9.75 inches.
Rounding out the day on the field events was Sobrato’s Gwyneth Tran who cleared 4 feet, 8 inches to take eighth place.
Finally, Emily Valella took seventh place in the 300 hurdles with a PR time of 53.21.
