Lopez heads East winners at Open meet

UNIVERSITY CITY —- Among the sports most negatively affected by delays in competition and training came in track. However, Grossmont Conference schools still came away with several CIF San Diego Section champions at the Open Division meet, held Saturday (June 19) at University City High.

On the girls’ side, the lone champion was West Hills senior Brandy Atuatasi, a state meet finalist in the shot put as a sophomore in 2019, who captured the discus.

There were three individual champions on the boys’ side: Ian Lipsey of Valhalla (long jump), middle distance runner Diego Lopez of Steele Canyon (3200 meters), and Adren Parker of Helix (400 meters).

In addition, Helix captured the 4×100 meter relay.

Atuatasi, who signed a National Letter of Intent with Stanford last December. At 16, her specialty was the shot, but a wrist injury forced her to place greater emphasis on the discus.

Despite the lack of quality training, her best mark in the discus still ranks among the top five marks in San Diego Section history.

Lipsey set a personal best with a leap of 23′ 3.5 despite the blustery conditions. It was his second-ever mark of better than 23 feet.

He also placed fifth in the 100 meters.

Lopez, the reigning Grossmont Conference cross country champion, took the 1,600 meters in 4:19.55 by just 2/3rds of a second over David Miller of Mira Mesa.

Lopez was runner-up in the 800 meters to Miller, as the rivals split their season series.

Parker also collected gold and silver, winning over 400 meters, and finishing second at 700 meters. The senior was also a finalist in the 200, finishing seventh.

For all of these seniors, the season is over. The CIF state meet was canceled earlier in the month.

In addition, the annual Golden West Invitational, first held in 1960 and is the oldest prep invitational meet in the U.S., was held concurrently with the CIFSDS Open Meet.