“It’s a nice thing when your expectations are met,” said head track & field coach Andy Sythe, at his program’s end-of-year banquet last Saturday at The Grand in Long Beach. The track/cross country banquet, like all banquets, was held to honor the accomplishments of last year’s teams, and to look ahead to the next season, which the 49ers did by having a multitude of incoming athletes stand to be recognized.

While attendees munched on a delicious lunch, coach Sythe handed out some team awards to his track athletes, and coach Patrick Cunniff who runs the cross country program did the same.

There were plenty of runner/scholars, and Anastasiya Kholev, a pole vaulter from Israel, had a 4.0 semester to top off her 3.94 cumulative GPA.  Steven DeCastro was also honored—the XC runners recognized were Stuart Chapman (freshman from Bosco) and Missy Barclay, who both posted 4.0s.

The Bob Sythe Memorial Scholarship, given to an academically sound, talented athlete who is not receiving financial aid was awarded to Josh Ruff, whose leadership ability was praised by his coach.

After that the Inspirational Awards were given out to Collin Cram, for overcoming serious injuries, and Jill Reynolds and Austin Flower.  The MVPs were Katelyn Ciarelli, Jessica Branker, Chris Richardson (who held his young son aloft and shouted, “The future!”), and Brent Gray, all of whom were well-deserving of the honor.

After the highlight videos had been shown and all the hardware handed out, the guests ran for the doors—there was a basketball game just about to start in the Pyramid.  I was ten minutes late, but apparently all the sprinters made it in time.

Head coach Andy Sythe talks about some of his athletes

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