Coming away with victories in a dual meet on the road at Escalon, the Riverbank track and field teams had some outstanding efforts on Thursday.
“Both the boys’ and the girls’ teams won convincingly,” said coach Monte Wood. “On the boys’ side Fabian Arana won the shot put and the discus. Sophomore Marty Sveen won the pole vault with a personal record of 10’6”. He has really been performing well in both the pole vault and the high hurdles.”
Sveen took third in the high hurdles and the Bruins also swept Escalon in the distance races.
“Jonathen Beliera won the 1600 and the 800 and Adan Chavez won the 3200. Adan and Emmanuel Chavez moved here from Santa Rosa over winter break, and they have really added quality depth to our distance team,” explained Wood. “We have been without Luis Figueroa all spring due to a knee injury, but they have helped overcome that loss. Both relay teams won their events.”
Also, sophomore Simon White won the triple jump to round out a stellar effort by the boys.
“On the girls side, Kimberly Ruvalcaba won three events,” Wood said. “She won the 100 hurdles and with very little rest immediately ran the 1600. An Escalon girl pushed her for the whole race, and it looked as if Kimberly was going to take second until she made one last burst at the end to win it.”
Her time of 5:45 was “pretty good” for having ran the 100 hurdles right before the race, noted Wood. She also won the 300 hurdles and ran on the winning 4x400 relay team.
“Karina Cajero won the shot put and the discus. She set a personal record of 95’4” in the discus and 28’1” in the shot put,” Wood added. “Haley Richardson won the triple jump and the pole vault. She also took second in both hurdle races.”
Other standouts for the girls were Sabrina Garcia, who won the 100 and 200 and ran on both winning relay teams; and Mikayla Florez, who won the 3200 and ran on the winning 4x400 relay team.
“This week we run against Hughson here in Riverbank,” the coach said of what lies ahead for the squad. “Hughson was the preseason favorite to win league, and they have been impressive thus far this year.
“It should be an exciting meet.”
The Bruins host the Huskies on Wednesday, April 16.
