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Busy Week For Bruin Track And Field Athletes
Hernandez Macias
Lady Bruin Alondra Hernandez, left, prepares to take the baton from teammate Savannah Macias at the TVL Relays held on the Riverbank track last Tuesday, March 20. The league meet was the only competition that handled the rain last week, thanks to the Bruins all-weather track.

Starting off a very busy week by hosting the Trans-Valley League relays, the Bruin track and field team was in action on Tuesday, March 20.

“This meet kicks off the TVL season, and all events are run relay style. We add up the results of all three field events competitors to determine the places, and all running events are relays,” head coach Monte Wood explained. “The girls battled it out against Hilmar for the team title but came up a few points short. If we had been able to have three competitors in all the field events and been able to field a shuttle hurdle team, we would have won the meet.”

The girls discus team of Marissa Castellanos, Gisselle Caratachea, and Cecilia Leon won the competition. Freshman Cecilia Leon took first overall individually by throwing a personal record of 82’ in the rain. The sprint medley relay team of Valeria Aguiniga, Alexa Gutierrez, Savannah Macias, and Alondra Hernandez won the event and came within a few tenths of a second of breaking the school record.

“Freshman Bridgete Allen won the girls open division in the pole vault in her first pole vault competition. She has really picked up the event in a short time, and I am so impressed with her work ethic and attitude,” noted Wood.

On the boy’s side, the Bruins finished fourth overall.

“Both the boy’s varsity and open distance medley relay teams won their races convincingly. Ramon Rosas, Isaac Andalon, Chris Martinez, and Damian Lopez won the varsity event,” said Wood. “Adan Salgado, Julian Lopez, Fredy Arana, and Carlos Aguilera won the open division race. Zac Richison won the individual triple jump competition. We were missing a few athletes, that really hurt us, but we also had some young kids step up and perform well.”

On Friday night, athletes who finished in the top seven at the County Meet competed at the County Clash in Oakdale. This meet pits athletes from San Joaquin, Merced, and Stanislaus counties against each other.

“Zac Richison ran a good time of 16.91 in the 110 hurdles despite hitting two hurdles hard,” Wood explained. “The girls 4x100 relay team set a season best of 53.5 which is one of the fastest times in over 10 years for a girls 4x100 relay team. The team consists of Valeria Aguiniga, Savannah Macias, Andrea Ruiz, and Alexa Gutierrez. Savannah Macias came back and ran in the 100 and set a personal best of 13.1. She is within .25 of the school record. Marissa Castellanos threw 86’ in the discus.”

Also Friday night, the distance runners competed at the Bella Vista Distance Carnival in Fair Oaks.

“This is a meet that our distance runners always look forward to and perform very well in,” said Wood. “It is run under the lights, music playing, and it has great competition. Freshmen Adan Salgado and Fredy Arana shone bright. They both set huge personal records with Adan running a 5:04 and Fredy running a 5:17.”

Freshman Yara Choeb also set a huge personal record by running 6:37 in the mile, the coach said, while senior Damian Lopez was very good also. He ran 4:45 in the mile. Sophomore Ramon Rosas also had a great night with a personal record of 10:34 in the two mile.

“Nico Pulido ran his first 800 and ran 2:13 which is really impressive since he hasn’t been trained for the event. He just came off a stellar soccer season and carried that momentum over into track.” Wood said. “The great thing about him is that he is so versatile. He can run events from 100 to 800 meters and be successful.”

It was both a busy and successful week for the track and field squad, which Wood said bodes well for the rest of the campaign.

“One thing that is clear so far this season is that our freshmen and sophomores are probably the most dedicated and hard working group overall that we have had in my 21 years at RHS,” he noted. “They work hard, are reliable, and are very coachable. That isn’t to say we don’t have that in the other classes in some individuals, but these kids are exceptional overall as a group.”