For their senior night matchup, the UHS Track and Field team competed against the Portola Bulldogs at home on April 9. Despite strong performances by Trojan athletes, both the boys’ and girls’ teams lost by sizable margins, with the boys losing 44-82 and the girls losing 37.5-88.5. The Trojans hope to brush off this defeat as they progress through their season and work towards the CIF preliminaries.
Prior to the start of the meet, all Trojan athletes were called to the center of the field to form two lines for the seniors to walk through. Each senior had their name, the events they participated in and their plans for after high school called out as they walked through the lines created by their teammates. Many seniors appreciated the ceremonial festivities of the meet.
“I’m really enjoying senior night, and I’m happy this is how I can spend my remaining time with my teammates,” senior Joey Davis said.
The meet commenced with the 400-meter relay. In the girls’ 400-meter relay, no UHS athletes competed while the Bulldogs finished with a time of 49.28 seconds. In the boys’ 400-meter relay, two sets of Portola teams ran against the Trojan team consisting of senior Nico Amir Ardalan, Davis, senior Kasra Sarafian and junior Moises Keith-Chavez. Ardalan ran the first leg for the Trojans and started the race off in second place, but got caught by the trailing Portola runner just as he passed the baton off to Davis. Both Davis and Sarafian trailed slightly behind but kept pace with the other runners. To end the race, Sarafian passed the baton off to Keith-Chavez, who was determined to close the gap with the Bulldog athletes.
“I didn’t [want to] let Uni down,” Keith-Chavez said.
Keith-Chavez managed to catch up to one of the Portola runners, giving the Trojans a second-place finish with a time of 44.97 seconds.
Later in the meet, the Trojans secured a set of victories in the 1600-meter run. In the boys’ race, the Trojans got a first-place finish from senior captain Ameen Gish, with a time of 4:35.90, and a second-place finish from junior George Abbott, with a time of 4:35.96. In the girls’ race, senior captain Claire Hipszer won with a time of 5:12.38. In the face of Portola’s dominance, these victories inspired hope and admiration among many Trojan athletes.
“I am really happy and motivated to do better from seeing that Claire and the others won,” junior Lara Blanco said.
Other notable Trojan first-place victories include Gish in the 800-meter dash, the UHS relay team in the boys’ 1600-meter relay, sophomore Vitor Campos in the shot put, junior Sterling Williamson in the triple jump, Hipszer in the 3200-meter run and junior Sofia Costa in the high jump.
The Trojans intend to focus on these small victories as they prepare for the Orange County Track & Field Championships in Mission Viejo on April 18.
