Masterlin third at CIF Open Championship Meet

For Fallbrook High School junior Max Masterlin and freshman Sahara Khoury, the 2021 high school track and field season ended June 19 at the all-division CIF Open Championship Meet held at University City High School.

Khoury took fifth place in the girls pole vault with a height of 8'6". Masterlin competed in the boys high jump and cleared 6'1" to take seventh place.

"They did pretty well," said Fallbrook High Head Coach Marco Arias.

The Valley League championship meet took place May 28 at Valley Center High School. The league meet champion automatically earned a berth at the CIF San Diego Section meet as did any runners or field athletes who posted a qualifying time or distance, and alternates were scratched in if a qualifier scratched out.

The CIF preliminaries took place June 5 at Mount Carmel High School. The top nine Division II athletes in each event qualified for the finals June 12 at Mount Carmel. "They went pretty well," Arias said.

A high jumper or pole vaulter has three attempts to clear a height. Ties are broken based on missed attempts at lower heights. Six Division II boys cleared 5'11" in the high jump, while five others cleared 5'9". Three of the jumpers who cleared 5'11", including Masterlin, did not miss any of their attempts. Since all were advancing there was no need to break the tie or to attempt jumps at a higher distance.

Five Fallbrook athletes qualified for the CIF preliminaries in the pole vault; senior Gavin Weber was in the boys pole vault while three girls also participated in the preliminaries and sophomore Savannah Riley scratched out of the meet. Three Division II girls including junior Rose Wagner cleared 10'0"; Wagner was one of two girls who shared third place due to the tiebreaker of previous misses. Three girls, including Khoury, cleared 9'6" and Khoury was one of two girls who shared sixth place.

"They all did enough to get to the next level," Arias said.

Fallbrook's other pole vaulter, freshman Maya Khoury, was eliminated after clearing 8'6" and settled for 14th place. "She was close, but she missed it," Arias said.

The Khoury twins gave Fallbrook two freshmen in the CIF preliminaries. "It's still quite an accomplishment," Arias said. "Pole vault's going to continue to be our strength."

Three Fallbrook relay teams – the girls 4x100, the girls 4x400, and the boys 4x100 – scratched out of the CIF meet.

Based on position points in the Division II finals, Fallbrook's girls took 20th place and the Warrior boys placed 21st.

Two Division II boys pole vaulters cleared 6'3" at the finals. Masterlin was unsuccessful at that distance and settled for 6'1". Due to fewer misses – to be precise none before he attempted his 6'3" jumps – he took third place while La Costa Canyon freshman Hudson Shaver was fourth.

"Max did extremely well," Arias said. "Had he cleared the 6'3", he would have won it."

Wagner cleared 10'0" and shared fifth and sixth place among Division II girls. Sahara Khoury had a height of 9'0" for ninth place. Weber did not clear any of his three initial high jump attempts.

Prior to this year, the CIF San Diego Section had two divisions for track and field. The athletes from Division I and Division II combined with the top three times or distances in each event qualified for the state meet. There was no state meet this year, but the San Diego Section held the Open Championship Meet.

"It was an attempt to give the athletes another opportunity to move on," Arias said.

The Open Championship Meet didn't have the prestige of the statewide meet. "It was more of a learning experience," Arias said. "For them it was just another opportunity to see the bigger meets."

This year the San Diego Section had three track and field divisions. Each division champion qualified for the Open Championship Meet as did the athletes with the next six fastest times or longest distances from all divisions. Masterlin qualified for the Open Championship Meet. "That's a big thing," Arias said.

Khoury was scratched into the Open Championship Meet.

Three boys high jumpers cleared at least 6'3". Masterlin and three others cleared 6'1" but not the next-higher distance. "He's stuck at that 6'1" level," Arias said.

The other three boys who cleared 6'1" but not higher had fewer misses, so Masterlin was given seventh place. "That was still a very good performance for him," Arias said.

While Khoury took fifth place in the girls pole vault with a height of 8'6", the fourth-place girls pole vaulter, University City junior Ellen Lozada, cleared 9'0". The third-place distance of 10'6" was achieved by La Jolla Country Day sophomore Jordan Kinkead.

"She's got some time to learn and get better," Arias said of Khoury.