By Jacqueline Huerta
Staff Writer
The Track and Field team competed at the Orange County Championships in Mission Viejo this past Saturday, April 14. Unfortunately, of the 68 teams that raced at the meet, the team did not finish within any of the top 40 teams overall.
The team’s score can perhaps be attributed to the fact that only about 15 athletes raced at the meet, as it was an invitational rather than a league meet and thus, optional for most.
The athletes gave very strong, competitive individual performances at the meet.
Sophomore Avery Klauke as well as freshman Collette Lowengrub raced exceptionally well in the 1600m Frosh-Soph. With respective times of 5:44.91 and 5:23.97, both athletes earned a place among the top 25 Frosh-Soph runners.
“It definitely wasn’t a perfect race, but running with a lot of other people who want the same thing as you encouraged me to run faster,” Klauke stated.
Lowengrub also felt that it was a hard race due to the high heat that day. She believes that she could have done better if the conditions were not so.
Nevertheless, both runners persevered and represented their team extremely well.
In the Varsity 100m, senior Faris Quasi also finished his race especially strong, with a time of 11.44 and a spot in the top 20 of about 40 runners total. As for the Varsity 200m, Quasi placed as number 15 with a time of 22.89.
In the Frosh-Soph 200m, sophomore Matthew Tang finished with a time of 23.67 and a place of number 12 out of nearly 50 runners. Sophomores Lance Deolden and Neel Choudhary came in close with respective times of 24.14 and 24.16.
Junior Ray Corpus finished the varsity 110m hurdles with a time of 17.93, earning him 37th place in his race.
As for the Varsity high jump, junior Amber Sun finished in 18th place with a jump of 4-08.00, and junior Evan Pariser tied with seven athletes for 10th place with 5-10.00m. Sophomore Katherine Loritz did exceptionally in the Frosh-Soph high jump, placing 12th of 20, with a jump of 4-06.00.