Story By Chace Bryson | Photos By Phillip Walton
It’s the last major meet tuneup before the postseason grind begins. The 38th Annual Sacramento Meet of Champions took place at American River College on April 28.
And Heritage High’s Jett Charvet was all systems go.
Charvet, the defending CIF State Champion in the 800 meters, decided not to run his signature event. Instead, he took on the 1600 meters and defeated San Rafael’s Munir Kabbara by sixth hundredths of a second. Connor Livingston of De La Salle took third in the finals with a time of 4:16.23
Charvet’s time (4 minutes, 15.62 seconds) wasn’t his fastest mile of they ear. He posted a 4:14.31 at the Stanford Invitational at the end of March. That time is good enough for ninth in the state this season; meanwhile he holds the state’s top time in the 800 after a 1:52.60.
However, Charvet will be the first to tell anyone who mentions his top time that it’s no indicator of state championship success. In fact, he didn’t have any times in the state top 10 (compiled by DyeStat.com) heading into the 2018 CIF championship meet in Bakersfield last June. And yet he still posted a time of 1:51.07.
As for the Meet of Champions, other schools had strong outings besides Charvet and Heritage. Dayton Hicks (Clayton Valley) won the high jump finals with a leap 6 feet, 5 inches. Jonathan Choi of Acalanes took third in the race. Las Lomas’ Nico Bland blazed his way to 48.25 time in the 400 meters — a feat which saw him take silver behind Zach Larrier of Monterey Trail-Elk Grove. Larrier reached the finish line in 47.50 on Saturday. Miles Duncan ran the race in a time of 49.01 to take third overall.
Finally, another Heritage standout, Kidest Befikadu, took second in the Meet of Champions girls high jump finals with a leap of 5-3.
CARONDELET CLASS ACT
Carondelet HIgh School inducted it’s inaugural Athletics Hall of Fame class on April 28. And as debut classes go, it would be tough to nitpick this one.
Twelve-time Olympic swimming medalist, Natalie Coughlin (2000 grad), lead a group of three individuals inducted. She was joined by WNBA and NCAA basketball stalwart, Jayne Appel Marinelli (2006) and U.S. Women’s National Team soccer star, Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak (1995).
Marinelli graduated Stanford as the Pac-12’s all-time leading rebounder with 1,214 boards. She then went on to a successful WNBA career with the San Antonio Stars. Sahaydak was just 16 when she debuted for the U.S. Women’s National Team. She won a gold medal as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, and was also part of the 1999 FIFA World Cup championship squad. She is now the head women’s coach for Central Florida University.
The fourth inductee was the 1996 Girls Cross Country Team, the school’s first team state champion.
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