By Mary Blakely Heuer
Staff Writer
The SRHS track and field team has a history of being on top of the competition. This year’s team was riddled with stars, including senior Johnny Ando, distance runner; Dacey Howe, pole vaulter; senior Elijah Hansen, sprinter; and so many more. The hard work of the team as a whole paid off with a fantastic season. “So many people improv[ed] and PR[ed] every meet,” said varsity distance runner Omé Zúñiga. “We’ve done amazing.”
The track season started with invitationals, which are unscored meets with multiple schools that typically run for the better part of a Saturday. Hosted by Santa Rosa, the Big Cat Invite on March 2 was the first and largest of these; wind, rain and hail did not stop around 2,000 athletes from more than 20 schools from competing and making lasting memories. Following Big Cat, our track team participated in several more exciting invites throughout the season, such as the Field Event Jamboree, Dublin Distance Fiesta and SRJC’s Twilight Invitational. On top of that, our varsity boys’ distance medley team—senior Adam Joseph, junior Patrick Schott, junior Omé Zúñiga and senior Johnny Ando—qualified for the highly-selective Stanford Invitational, coming in fifth in their section. Even though these meets don’t count towards official results, athletes find them to be some of the most exciting and rewarding days all season. “Invitationals are always super fun for the whole team, and they bring everyone closer together,” said varsity athlete junior Gavin Moore.
On March 27, our matchup against the Windsor High Jaguars was an easy victory. With our varsity girls coming in first in 10 out of 16 events and our varsity boys winning 13, some star performances came from junior Dorian Decker, junior Juelz Perez and freshman Tanyon Miller, who took every point in the JV boys discus, despite the constant cold wind and rain reminiscent of the downpour of Big Cat. “I took risks,” said Decker of his performance. “I did spins in the discus ring. Almost slipped multiple times, but it paid off [and] I got first place.” Similarly, freshmen JV girls Claire Wienert Bardell, Celeste Vasquez and Elle-Marie Logue came in first, second and third in the 1600 meter with more than a 10-second lead on the Windsor runner in fourth place.
Maria Carrillo’s team proved a greater challenge at the April 3 meet hosted by the Pumas, but even still, our boys varsity team prevailed, pulling a win determined by the very last event, the 4×400 relay run by senior Cole Ouimette, senior Johnny Ando, junior Omé Zúñiga and junior Patrick Schott. Furthermore, our varsity girls’ discus throwers dominated, with senior Katherine Cornelius, senior Sandy Agbayani, sophomore Faith Ennis-Madyun and freshman Faye Kovacevich coming in first, second, third and fourth respectively. This meet also brought sophomore thrower Natalie Pushkarev up to varsity, as she toppled her discus PR (personal record) by a whopping 14 feet! “I was so excited because I haven’t been able to beat my PR in, like, a year, so I was really, really happy,” said Pushkarev. Despite competing in junior varsity, her throw was the furthest any girl on either team threw all evening.
The Montgomery Vikings were toppled the following week on April 10, with SRHS snagging 320 out of the 471 total points scored all evening and dominating in every division. Notable performances came from our field athletes, where varsity girls came out on top by a long shot in every single event, courtesy of our team’s depth and skill. Senior Elijah Hansen took the win in the 100 meter and 200 meter, per usual, with senior Cadel Sacher and junior Jalen Chan following closely behind in both races. In the JV division, sophomore Krystof Gonzalez, junior Ian Camacho Cendejas and freshman Ike Tilson-Panick finished as the top Santa Rosa runners, first, third and fourth.
This year’s track season has been a memorable one for our school. While we say goodbye to a wealth of senior talent this year, we’re also watching the rapid advance of many up-and-coming underclassmen such as freshmen girls Muruelle Teri in long and triple jump, Faye Kovacevich in the 100 meter and 200 meter and Tiare Sarraf in the 800 meter and 1600 meter. As the season comes to a close, keep your eye out for next year when the SRHS track and field team is sure to dominate the competition once again.
