By Jay Leon Guerrero
Ethan Alegre clears the highest jump of his career. (photo by Richard Camacho)
With Guam Track and Field officials off-island for the 2015 Oceania Championships, the IIAAG Track season took the weekend off. But that didn’t stop the high schools from competing with four schools gathering at JFK track to compete alongside high school and local athletes.
“Some people were asking for us to host the meet so we had GW, JFK, Tiyan, and Sanchez participating. The other schools that didn’t participate used the time off as a training week,” said JFK coach Jay Antonio.
Antonio and JFK athletics hosted the meet called the JFK/Guam Central Athletics Invitational Meet. The meet featured the high jump, long jump, 3000 meters, hurdles, javelin, 4×100 and the 4 x 800 relay events on day one. Day two continues on Friday evening at the JFK track.
GW’s Ethan Alegre provided all the excitement for Day one of the meet in the high jump event. Alegre took the high jump to over 6-foot in height for the first time this year.
The other events were all completed and all participants cheered Alegre as he cleared 6’0″. Alegre was on a roll and didn’t stop at 6-foot, clearing 6’1, and then 6’2″ on his second attempt. His height at 6’2″ ties the national record by Raffy Cartaciano set in 2002. Cartaciano’s height is officially listed at 1.90 meters on the GTF website.
Alegre said his personal best was 5’11” and he was happy to reach new heights, no pun intended.
“I want to thank my team and my coach for supporting me and helping me train. I also want to say thank you to my family, especially my twin brother Eric for being there for me,” said Ethan Alegre. Ethan Alegre is the defending all-island gold medallist and he literally set the bar for the competition.
“I don’t know what my outcome will be for the all-island, I just need to work harder and hopefully I can break the national record soon,” said Alegre.
Eric Alegre, Ethan’s twin brother, was behind his brother along with their father Errol Alegre Sr. The Alegre’s celebrated a double victory with Eric winning the long jump prior to Ethan’s high jump feat.
The tournament was not an exclusive high school track event, so Ethan’s record will not go into the high school record books. However, the record breaking performance may count as a national record since there were some Guam Track and Field officials present.
“I’d have to look it up but absolutely we can check on the record. It won’t be a high school record, but it could count for a national record since we have Guam Track and Field officials here,” said Antonio.
Till GSPN gets further word, the record now stands unofficially as a tie with Cartaciano.
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