The Menlo track & field team opened the CCS Championships with a state bid and ended Saturday with another ticket to state and a meet record.

After coming in first or second at the section meet, the 4x800 relay, junior Henry Hauser in the 1600m and sophomore Tres Onyejekwe in the 300 hurdles advance to the state meet Saturday in Fresno.

Henry Hauser crosses the finish line in first as the anchor of the 4x800, which set a meet record Saturday“It’s an amazing feeling that we have multiple athletes from both distance and sprints going to the state meet,” Hauser said. “I am grateful to have such a supportive and competitive team.”

Menlo’s 4x800 team of sophomore Oliver Olbekson, junior Joseph Hurd, senior Amay Srinivasan, and Hauser charged to a gold medal in a CCS-meet record 7:46.26.

“The key was trust and belief. If not for each of our parts in the relay, we would not have been in the position for the win and meet record,” Hauser said. “Everyone on the team stepped up and truly believed in each other that we could make it happen.”

The previous-best at the CCS finals was 7:50.88, set by Justin Pretre, Will Hauser, Landon Pretre and Aiden Deffner in 2023. Showing just how quickly the relatively new event is catching on, five teams broke the meet record this year. The Knights relay holds the second-best time in school history only to the 2023 team’s time of 7:39.10 at the state meet.)

Sophomore Tres Onyejekwe took second in the 300 hurdles in 36.88, beating his own school record and securing a berth to state.

The Knights started the day with Hauser running the 1600-meter run in a personal-record 4:09.95 for silver.

Senior Braden Rock matched his previous-best of 6 feet in the high jump.