OPHS track and field wins big at the Tara Davis Invitational
On Saturday, Feb. 28, the Oak Park High School track and field team attended the Tara Davis-Woodhall Invitational track meet at Agoura High School. Thousands of athletes, coaches, parents and spectators filled the Chargers’ stadium; the sun beat down at a high of 87 degrees Fahrenheit, making it difficult to walk, let alone run. The OPHS track team, however, rose to the challenge and brought home medals, personal records and pride.
One of the day’s longest events was pole vault, in which athletes are divided into heats based on starting height, and have three attempts each to clear the bar, which is progressively raised over the course of the round.
Senior Nicolas Ramezani entered the event at an initial height of 9 feet, 6 inches. While the first three rounds were easy, once he made it to 11 feet–a height he had never cleared before–nerves were high.
As Ramezani catapulted into the air, he knew victory was imminent.
“I hit it, and as soon as you hit the pole or the box, that’s when you know if you’re going to make it or not. I feel that my momentum is taking me up. And at that moment, I already know this is going to clear it. I make it over, I turn over the bar, and I can see the bar is untouched. And before I even hit the mat, I’m already celebrating midair in my mind.”
Ramezani cleared the bar with inches to spare and came down to a chorus of cheers from an audience of friends, family and coaches who knew as well as he did the significance of this leap: in making this vault, he secured both a PR of 11 feet and a fifth-place varsity medal.
“It’s such a great feeling,” Ramezani said. “Everyone’s cheering and honestly, the adrenaline rush, it’s addicting.”
The team bounded as far as it did high at the meet. Senior Emma Baskin secured fourth place in the girls varsity long jump with a length of 16 feet, 7 inches. While the conditions of the day drained most people, Baskin says they helped her as well.
“[The heat is] quite exhausting, but it definitely helps loosen the muscles and keep them mobile to jump and run.” Still, the toll of running four events is heavy: “All the events, running the 4×100, doing long jump, the 100–definitely exhausts me.”
Some athletes stuck together for success. Sophomore Ari Kalan, senior Dimitri Natale, freshman Rafe Andersen and sophomore Jaiden Chan finished fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, in the boys varsity 1600 meter, all within three seconds of each other.
“Overall, I was aiming for 4:37, but then ended up going for 4:31,” Andersen said. “It was a really fun experience.”
On the girls distance team, there were also wins: Freshman Kathleen Lambe clinched second place in the girls varsity 1 mile with a time of 5:15.47 minutes. This season, she’s ready to score big.
“I’m trying to get the school record. The record is 4:47, and I’m trying to get 4:46,” Lambe said.
Her main takeaways from this meet?
Regardless of the event, a high level of focus is necessary to succeed. Junior Sadie Roesner, who gained a PR of 1:06.51 in the girls JV 400 meter–over a second better than her previous record of 1:08.05– blocked out all distractions during the race.
“The gun goes off and I just think, run, run, run,” Roesner said. “I try to focus on my own lane. I was surprised at the 300 mark, I’m like, oh, I’m still running and all these people look like they’re slowing down. You feel your legs give out and you feel like your chest is trying to go forward and your legs are staying behind, but then you just have to keep going.”
While she wasn’t sure how the meet would go, Roesner credits her hard work after school for the PR.
“I honestly didn’t have a clue if I was going to PR today or not, because it was my first time running the 400 since last year,” Roesner said. “But I’ve been really good about going to practice early and just getting it done.”
Roesner isn’t the only one with unexpected success: Sophomore Cherish Antonio’s goal for the entire 2026 season was to get under 13 seconds in the 100 meter–and she did so during the first meet, coming 11th out of 92 participants with a time of 12.83 seconds.
“Now that I broke 13, I would like to break 12,” Antonio said. “I know that’s going to be really hard, but I think I can do it.”
Antonio’s win today has taught her the importance of self-belief: something all track athletes, no matter the event, can learn from.
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