By Ben Leon Guerrero
The Guam High Panthers dynasty continues after capturing the ISA 2022 Boys and Girls Track & Field Championships Monday night at the JFK track. The boys team took first place in nine of the 15 events for their fifth straight title while the girls team garnered first place in five of the 15 events for their third consecutive title.
Aaron Johnson’s two gold, two silver medals and Kailee Guerrero’s three gold medals led the way for the Panthers. Both athletes were members of last year’s championship teams.
“It’s historical. Five straight championships for the boys and three straight for the girls. I’m glad that Guam High is finally getting recognized for winning that many championships in a row.”
– Guam High head coach Joe Taitano
Taitano, who has been sidelined due to health issues, continued to play a significant part of the team from a distance meeting through Google Classroom and providing the workouts for practice and the impact he has on his team showed as both the boys and girls teams rushed to his side after receiving their trophies.
“Being away physically is hard because I love coaching the kids, so I’m glad I was able to work out with them for the first 3 ½ weeks and instill in them some of the things I thought were important to ensure we at least have a shot at the title.”
The Panthers dominated the boys sprinting events accumulating a total of 63 points for the 100m, 200m and 400m events. Johnson took gold in the 400m and silver in the 100m and 200m events behind teammate Alex Gallego who took gold in the 100m and 200m events and bronze in the 400m.
“It feels good to carry on the legacy that was left by the seniors from last year especially my brother (AJ) who left with four gold medals,” said Johnson. “I’m just trying to live up to that legacy and I feel like I put my best efforts today.” Johnson scored 36 out of a possible 40 points.
JFK Islanders senior Mark Imazu and sophomore Hugh Kent owned the mid distance events with Imazu taking gold in the 800m and silver in the 1500m and bronze in the 3000m events while Kent took silver in the 800m and gold in the 1500m and 3000m events.
In the relay events, it was Guam High again taking the top spot for both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. GW with silver and JFK with bronze rounded out the 4x100m event while JFK tool silver and GW took bronze in the 4x400m relays.
For the fielding events, it was Guam Adventist Academy’s Carlos Poppe who took gold for the second year in a row while FD’s Brendon Cellona took gold for the discus and JFK’s Hanzelrein Arellano took gold for the javelin event.
Guam High also took care of the jumping events as the Panthers swept the long jump event with Johnson taking gold, Gallego silver and Jared Aguon bronze. Aguon would also take gold in the triple jump event. Alex Na of JFK took silver and FD’s Dylan Francisco with the bronze.
Aguon, joining the team after an injury, added a big boost to the Panthers already dominant boys team taking gold and hitting his personal best in the triple jump with 12.83m and gold with the 4x100m relay and bronze in the long jump.
“I just wanted to strive to be the best I can especially joining late in the season and to be at the same level as my teammates,” said Aguon. “This is my first year in track and it allowed me to embrace my competitiveness, even with the guys from Tiyan (Dean Masnayon) and GW (Nathan Castro) those guys pushed me to do my best and to drive harder.”
BOYS Team
Guam High – 188
JFK – 132
Sanchez/GW – 52
FD – 30
Southern – 22
Tiyan – 15
GAA – 11
Okkodo – 8
GIRLS DIVISION
In the girls division, the Guam High Panthers squeaked by the GW Geckos by a margin of three points winning the championship in the 4x400m event. Heading into the All-Island Meet, the Geckos posed the biggest threat to dethroning the Panthers heading into the final event with a one-point lead. But Guam High would not be denied as the 4x400m relay team took gold and its 10 points to overtake GW for the title. Sanchez took silver and the Geckos took bronze to round out the 4x400m top three finishers.
“We were told from the start that the difference between us and the other teams were about one or two points. So, we knew it was going to be down to the 4x400m and our team was super ready to go out and get it. They did amazing!”
– Guam High’s Kailee Guerrero
Guerrero took gold for the second consecutive year in the 100m and 200m events as well as gold in the 4x100m relay event scoring a total of 30 points for the Panthers. The junior has a total of seven gold medals out of seven events dating back to last year’s All-Island where she took gold in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 4x400m events.
“Coach Dial helped us along the way, and we knew coach Taitano was with us in spirit. Both coaches helped us move along in the season and be successful by encouraging us every single day,” said Guerrero. “The motivation was focused on the championship and I’m really glad we made it.”
Erica Palisoc of Simon Sanchez took silver in the 100m and 200m events and GW’s Alexis Robinson took bronze in the 100m and 200m events. In the 400m event, GW’s Aleah Castro and Sanchez’s Kayna Kanemoto tied for gold with an identical time of 1:05.75 while Guam High’s Cirie Hawkins took bronze.
GW continued to put the pressure on the Panthers as they dominated the 800m, 1500m and 3000m events with junior Jordan Baden taking gold all three events. Mary Jane Gatbonton of Sanchez took silver in the 800m and 1500m events. Rebekah Stringham from Guam High took bronze in the 800m. Robin Cruz of GW took bronze in the 1500m and 3000 meter events with Keira Paz from Guam High rounding out the mid distance taking silver in the 3000m.
In the 100m hurdle,s GW’s Castro took gold, Guam High’s Hawkins took silver and Marie Calvo from JFK took bronze. For the 300m hurdles Hawkins took gold, Castro took silver and Calvo took bronze.
4x100m relay: Guam High gold, Simon Sanchez silver and JFK bronze.
4x400m relay: Guam High gold, Simon Sanchez silver and GW bronze.
Melody Rosario from GW took gold in the shot put by .02 meters to out throw GAA’s Hadassah Jano-Edward who took silver and Crystal Lopez of Southern took bronze.
For the discus event Southern’s Aneli Cruz took gold in her final throw with a distance of 22.53 meters. Tiyan’s Christine-Danielle Leon Guerrero’s personal record of 22.20 meters took silver and Tiyan’s Zoey Indalecio took bronze for the second year in a row with a distance of 21.23 meters.
In the javelin event, Sanchez’s Kanemoto took gold with a personal record of 30.29 meters. Nya Belga of Okkodo took silver with 21.44 meters and teammate Sadie Apuron took bronze with 20.30 meters.
JFK’s Marie Calvo swept both jumping events taking gold in the long jump at 4.75 meters and the triple jump at 9.69 meters. Academy’s Taylor-Ann Santos took silver at 4.46 meters and Amoni Washington of Guam High took bronze at 4.41 meters to round out the long jump. For the triple jump, Franchesca Villagomez of JFK took silver at 8.55 meters and GW’s Havannah Cruz took bronze at 8.54 meters.
GIRLS Team
GHS – 121
GW – 118
SSHS – 84
JFK – 76
AOLG – 29
Tiyan – 28
Okkodo – 27
Southern – 19
GAA – 8
The Panthers look to run it back again next year as both their boys and girls teams are made up of mainly underclassmen with the hopes that legendary coach Taitano will return to the helm in an active capacity. Taitano looks forward to continuing the culture of winning he created at Guam High with his cross country and track programs.
“We look good for next year. I’m looking forward to next year’s track season, there’s many records I want to break and many records I will get,” said Johnson. “We’ll put in the work and get everyone on track next year and we’re going to be really good!”
“It begins with the athletes buying into the program in terms of what we are doing and trying to achieve and that has a lot to do with traditions, even during your time as my assistant coach, we won many championships together,” said Taitano. “So, the winning culture we established at Guam High, I think, really motivated the kids to work harder and more importantly to show up to practice every single day, and it showed in tonight’s outcome”
2022 ISA ALL-ISLAND MEET
GIRLS 100M FINALS
BOYS 100M FINALS
GIRLS 200M FINALS
BOY
S 200M FINALS
GIRLS 400M FINALS
BOYS 400M FINALS
BOYS 800M FINALS
GIRLS 1500M FINALS
BOYS 1500M FINALS
GIRLS 3000M FINALS
BOYS 3000M FINALS
GIRLS 100M HURDLES FINALS
BOYS 110M HURDLES FINALS
GIRLS 300M HURDLES FINALS
BOYS 300M HURDLES FINALS
GIRLS 4X100M RELAY
BOYS 4X100M RELAY
GIRLS SHOT PUT FINALS
BOYS SHOT PUT FINALS
GIRLS DISCUS FINALS
BOYS DISCUS FINALS
GIRLS JAVELIN FINALS
BOYS JAVELIN FINALS
GIRLS LONG JUMP FINALS
BOYS LONG JUMP FINALS
GIRLS TRIPLE JUMP FIANLS
BOYS TRIPLE JUMP FINALS
GIRLS 4X400M RELAY
BOYS 4X400M RELAY
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