Hayden Wright

Ashley Coert

Last Thursday the Fillmore High School Track and Field team traveled to Malibu High School to compete in their first league meet. After last year’s sweep in the Frontier League, the team was anxious and excited go after another league title. This year brought a lot of new faces into the track season. Most of our team is composed of underclassmen which is promising for the future. Those that are upperclassmen have helped to bring the new athletes into the track culture and have been instrumental in helping to get the athletes prepared for the season. The training has been a holistic effort that undoubtedly is the result of the athletes putting in the time and effort.

The Junior Varsity Girls level was one of our biggest challenges to fill in numbers. Currently team is composed of seventy percent of boys and only thirty percent girls, so balancing between the Varsity and JV levels has been a task. In the distance category, freshman Alexis Tafoya finished first in both the 1600m with a time of 5:51.35 and 3200m with a time of 12:40, where she ran her personal best in both races. Freshman Sofia Gallardo placed second in both races with personal bests. In the 1600m her time was 6:31.38 and 14:15.69 in the 3200m. In the throws both sophomores Jessica Mayhew and Gissel Uriostegui placed first for the flashes. Jessica Mayhew won the girls shot put with a mark of 24 feet 2 ½ inches and took second in the discus throwing 60 feet, 11 ½ inches. Gissel Uriostegui won the discus throwing 67 feet, 7 ¾ inches and a third place finish in shot put, throwing 21 feet, four inches. In the hurdles, sophomore Jaylene Ortiz won the 100 meter hurdles with at time of 20.12 seconds her teammate sophomore Vanessa Perez in second place with a time of 24.02.

The boys’ frosh-soph division is the largest group of athletes. Winning the high jump was sophomore Alexander Banales with a jump of 5 feet four inches. In the long and triple jump returning sophomore Joseph Orozco won the triple jumping 37 feet 3 ½ inches and taking second in the long jump with 17 feet 1 inch. Sophomore Frank Chavez won both the 200 meters in 24.92 seconds and the 400 meters in 54.93 seconds in the sprints. The distance performances were outstanding for the division placing first through eighth in the 1600 meters lead by sophomore Nico Frias with a time of 5:04.15. In the 3200m, freshman Francisco Erazo placed first with at time of 11:21.30. In the hurdles division, Daniel Flores took first place in both the 110 meter and 300 meter hurdles. Rounding out the boys frosh soph division, in the thows, Ricardo Gutierrez took first in the shot put with a throw of 37 feet 11 inches and Adael Mejia won the discus throwing 97 feet 6 inches.

The Girls Varsity division was lead by senior Ashley Coert who scored fifteen points for the lady flashes winning the triple jump, high jump and 100 meter hurdles. In the distance category, sophomore Kiana Hope won both the 1600 meter with a time of 5:28.54 and the 3200 meters with a time of 12:20.65. Junior, Andrea Robles took first in the 400 meters with a time of 68.3 seconds. In the throws, senior Alejandra Amezcua took second in the frontier league meet with a throw of 80 feet 8 inches, while teammate, senior Nenetzin Herrera had a throw of 24 feet 4 ½ inches finishing third place for the lady flashes. Rounding out the meet, the girls’ 4x400 meter race which included Kiana Hope, Andrea Robles, Ana Morino and Banely Arevalo took first in an impressive battle in the end against school rival Santa Paula.

The Varsity Boys division was lead by the distance group in the 1600 meter and 3200 meter races. In the boys 1600 meter Fillmore took the first seven spots lead by junior Hugo Valdovinos with a time of 4:43.15 and in the 3200 meters, junior Jose Almaguer finish first with a time of 10:19.74, a personal best set by him and his teammates that placed in the next five spots. In the sprints, senior Daniel Cruz flashed out in the 100 meters winning the race with a time of 11.62 seconds. In the relays, the boys 4x100 meters took first which included seniors Daniel Cruz, Juan Mariscal, Adrian Gutierrez and Alberto Fernandez.

To sum up the first Frontier meet, the athletes looked amazing. The whole team worked as a team, they were prepared for their races and they all had great attitudes during competition. Congrats Fillmore High Track and Field in a successful meet.