Andrea Laureano

Victor Ortiz, long distance head coach for the Heritage Valley Blazers, recently announced that Andrea Laureano, recently broke her own Ventura County record in the 1600m track event against the home team of the Ojai Roadrunners. Her time, at the April 27th event, of 6:29.52 smashed her previous record by 8.3 seconds. Miss Laureano, age 7, nipped the previous county record against the Thousand Oaks Flyers by .08 of one second. That record was originally established in 1996 by J. Mayers and then tied in 2003 by Taylor McGuirre of the Ventura Tigres.

When asked how she felt about breaking the long time record Andrea said, “I was excited. It was my goal to break the record since the beginning of the season.” She said that she has been running track for the Blazers for two years and also for the Fillmore Condors Cross Country team last year. She loves running because it is fun and that she can do it all the time.

Her father and coach Rafael said that Andrea is one of six Laureanos running for the Fillmore/Santa Paula teams. “Andrea has been on the go since she’s been in diapers. I haven’t been able to slow her down since, so I might as well coach her”, said Mr. Laureano. “My wife, Viviana, and I have been involved in the running world for quite some time. We enjoy helping young kids reach their goals and better their self esteem and we can do that best by teaching them how to run”. He went on to say that he is grateful for all of the support that their programs get including that of all the other dedicated coaches involved.

“We are proud of Andrea’s commitment to the sport and herself”, said Julian Morral, president of the Heritage Valley Blazers. “It is our aspiration that others may see themselves in her success and want to come out and give running a try. It is a fun sport for the whole family.” He went on to say that with Miss Laureano’s success in this event she automatically qualifies for the varsity finals to be held on May 18th and the Championship meet on the first of June. In addition Andrea has qualified to run in the 800m post season events and so far has been just 1.79 seconds away from qualifying in the 400m. “I know that when she returns next year she’ll master all of those events.” said Morral.

The Heritage Valley Blazers was founded in 1992 when the Santa Paula and Fillmore track clubs merged. They represent track athletes from ages five to 16 years old. They race with other children throughout the county including Newbury Park, Ventura, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Oxnard and Camarillo. It is part of the Ventura County Youth Track Conference. To learn more please go to: http://www.vcytc.org/track/about.html and http://www.vcytc.org/track/index.html. Information regarding the upcoming cross country season with the Condors which too represents kids from Santa Paula and Fillmore please go to: http://fillmorecondors.org/.