SPORTS & OUTDOORS
TRITON REPORT BY ZACH CAVANAGH, SAN CLEMENTE TIMES
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Caroline Hawkes Places 4th at State Track Championships San Clemente star sprinter Caroline Hawkes wrapped up her Triton career with verve at the 102nd CIF State Track and Field Championships on Saturday, May 28, at Buchanan High School in Clovis. Hawkes, a senior, ended her high school running career on the podium in the girls 400-meter final with a fourth-place finish to claim one of the top-six medals. Hawkes was clocked at 55.47 seconds, which was more than a second behind the first-place finisher and state leader, Takiya Cenci of Clovis North, who won the event at 54.01 seconds. Aujane Luckey of Long Beach Wilson finished second at 54.90 seconds, and Maya Shinnick of Glendora finished third at 55 seconds even. Hawkes had been extremely consistent in the event all season with sub-56-second times in all but two of her 11 runs in the 400 this spring. The Montana State-bound sprinter posted her personal-record clocking on April 16 with a time of of 55.20 seconds at the Mt. SAC Relays. Hawkes won the 400 at the Orange County Championships with a time of 55.23 seconds and won the Sea View League championship with a time of 56.38 seconds. Hawkes finished fourth at the CIF-SS Division 1 Finals with a time of 55.99 seconds to advance to the Masters Meet, where she finished fifth to qualify for the State Championships with at time of 55.39 seconds. In the state preliminaries on Friday, May 27, at Buchanan High School, Hawkes finished third in her heat at 55.48 seconds and fifth overall to qualify for Saturday’s state finals. The three heat winners and the next six best times advanced to the final. This season, Hawkes also won titles in the 200-meter sprint with a win at the Orange County Championships and the Sea View League Finals. Hawkes finished sixth in the event at the CIF-SS Division 1 Finals and did not qualify for the Masters. Hawkes won 11 of her 14 runs in the 200 this season, and also San Clemente Times June 2-8, 2022
San Clemente senior sprinter Caroline Hawkes finished fourth in the girls 400-meter sprint at the 102nd CIF State Track and Field Championships on Saturday, May 28, at Buchanan High School in Clovis. Hawkes will run track at Montana State in the fall. Photo: Courtesy of Jimmy Su
set her personal record in the event at the Mt. SAC Relays with a wind-aided time of 24.37 seconds. The senior also won a league title in the girls 4x100-meter relay, but the Triton team did not advance out of the CIF-SS preliminaries. Hawkes also had the 100-meter sprint in her repertoire this season, with her appearances almost exclusively coming in dual meets. Hawkes won six of the seven 100-meter sprints she entered this season, with her personal record coming in the lone second-place finish at her home Triton Invitational at 12.16 seconds.
state podium, with a second-place finish in the boys 800-meter run. The New Zealand native was clocked at 1:51.28. JSerra senior Ashlee Gallegos finished 11th in the girls 800 at 2:16.22, and Dana Hills junior Allura Markow finished 10th in the girls 1,600-meter run at 4:50.89. St. Margaret’s senior pole vaulter Celeste Taylor and JSerra junior thrower Sienna Lambert both did not advance out of the state preliminaries. Lambert finished 13th in the girls discus throw, just one spot out of the qualifying top 12. Taylor finished 17th in the girls pole vault.
Local Area Athletes Find Success at State Track Championships
Landon Pluimer Named New Boys Basketball Coach
Including Hawkes, there were seven local area athletes from San Clemente, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano who competed at the CIF State Track Championships last weekend. JSerra junior thrower Brendon See won the state title in the boys discus throw. The Dana Hills transfer tossed a personal-record mark of 203 feet, 10 inches. Dana Hills senior Jai Dawson was the only other local athlete to find the
The San Clemente boys basketball program stuck with an internal hire for its new head coach. Landon Pluimer, a varsity assistant for the Tritons since 2017, was named San Clemente head coach in a release on May 16. Pluimer takes over for Marc Popovich, who stepped down in March after 15 years in the position. “We are excited about the future of Triton Boys’ Basketball as the Coach Pluimer era begins,” San Clemente athletic director Jon Hamro said in a statement. Page 19
“He takes over for longtime Head Coach Marc Popovich, and after being on staff the past five years, he is ready for the challenge of taking over a program that has achieved sustained success over the past 15 years. He knows our culture, philosophy and how important our sense of community is to both our school and athletic program.” Pluimer is also a math teacher at San Clemente High School. Popovich is also continuing to teach AP/IB-level social science at SCHS. Popovich compiled a 227-166 overall record in 15 seasons as the head coach of the Tritons, including five league championships over the past 10 seasons. San Clemente’s 2013 league title was the program’s first since 1975, and only the second in school history. The Tritons have also qualified for the playoffs in 11 consecutive seasons. Since Pluimer joined the varsity staff in 2017, San Clemente has gone 76-51 overall. Pluimer played college basketball in Orange County at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa and high school basketball in the South Coast League at Capistrano Valley High School. Last season, San Clemente went 17-8 overall and finished second in the South Coast League at 5-3. The Tritons lost in the first round of the CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs at Etiwanda. SC sanclementetimes.com
