By Justin Hsieh, Staff Writer
Yesterday afternoon, the Fountain Valley track and field team faced Edison in their last home meet of the season, crushing the Chargers in five of six divisions but falling short in boys’ varsity.
In the sprints, the girls dominated, winning both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. Freshman Kaho Cichon won the girls’ 400m, senior Amie Le was second in both the 400m and the 200m, and senior Mikaylah Maxwell was second in the 100m.
“I felt that the team did an amazing job overall for our last dual meet of the season and we were extremely competitive on all levels,” said Le. “Our field event athletes performed remarkably and the energy and enthusiasm coming from everyone in the stands definitely helped us to elevate against our competition… Our hard work during the off season is paying off and I think we’re on the right track heading into Sunset League Preliminaries. “
The boys were not as successful in the sprints as the girls, but junior Patrick Dunn and sophomore Axel Webster finished first and second in the 100m and senior Ryan Gilmore placed second in the 200m and third in the 100m.
“Especially on our home turf, we always run very well, however a few of us are battling injuries right now,” said Gilmore. “The only thing we can do better is to rest up and [go] faster next time. Axel Webster and Patrick Dunn never fail to overachieve… Every meet we’ve run in, they always seem to wind up on top.”
The girls also performed well in the hurdles, where seniors Elizabeth Chis and Anh Nguyen placed second and third in the 100m hurdles, and junior Aline Fuerte won the 300m hurdles with a personal record (PR) of 49.52.
“The hurdlers performed to the best of their abilities and scored more than half of the available points for their races which is awesome,” said Chis. “Every athlete was prepared and ready to unleash themselves… The hurdlers are great at staying together and hyping each other up for upcoming races.”
While the boys did not do as well in the hurdle races, senior Andrew Nunes managed to place third in both the 110m hurdles and the 300m hurdles, with two PRs of 16.30 and 43.94, respectively.
“I felt pretty good about the meet going into it and everyone [on all levels] still managed to exceed my expectations,” said Nunes. “One thing we could work on is being more confident running over the hurdles at top speed, which is really hard to do at first, but once you get over your apprehension you can really hit your stride.”
On the distance front, both the boys and girls were very successful against Edison. The Barons took first, second and third in the girls’ 1600m, boys’ 1600m and girls’ 800m, as well as taking first and second in both the boys’ and girls’ 3200m. The girls were led by senior Ashley Faller and junior Maddie Jahshan, who both scored in the 1600m and 3200m, and senior Sara Feitz, who placed first in the 1600m. The boys were led by seniors Yuki Watanabe, Justin Schmidt and Nicholas Mockus, as well as sophomore Hunter Augustus.
“The whole entire track team ran very well today,” said Schmidt. “Edison may have snagged some points from us in some races, but our team still killed it… The distance team ran spectacularly and I was so shocked and happy for all the PR’s. Edison did have some good distance runners we had to push against with great finishing kicks.”
Both boys’ and girls’ pole vault also did well, with senior Kayla Peterson and junior Angelica Gavia taking first and second for the girls. Sophomores Aalam Thaha and Matthew Cunningham took first and second for the boys.
“I am so very enthusiastic for the amount of dedicated young ladies we have on the pole vault team,” said Peterson. “We have developed a very consistent blend of athletes with a variety of talents… I am so proud of them for all their hard work, and I wouldn’t want to go into league finals with anyone else by my side.”
The Chargers challenged the Barons more in jumps, with the girls’ high jumpers, boys’ high jumpers and boys’ long jumpers unable to secure any points against Edison. In the girls’ long jump, however, seniors Anh Nguyen and Elizabeth Chis placed second and third, and in the girls’ triple jump junior Vy Truong, Nguyen and Chis took the top three. Sophomore Dylan Tran took first in the boys’ triple jump.
“I believe overall we competed to the best of our abilities,” said senior Meghan Powers. “At the meet against Edison, us jumpers stayed updated and in tune with the distances our teammates jumped, so we were able to strategize to score as many points as we could… I’ve seen our team dynamic improve with each meet, and the support we showed for each other at Edison pushed us to get to greater distances and new heights.”
In throws, the girls once again swept the competition with junior Maddie Taylor and senior Keely Togafau taking first and second in discus, and Togafau, junior Joi Hatcher and Taylor taking top three in shot put. The boys were hard pressed in throws, and did not manage to score any points in discus or shot put.
“I think that our overall scoring during the meet went as. expected and everyone coming together to reach a common goal was met,” said Taylor. “What I think could be improved is the drive to be better. The want to be there in the moment and achieve greater goals. While we are all getting better, I see setbacks from different mindsets and I think that could be improved.
This was the varsity girls’ 10th consecutive year defeating Edison. The Barons will next compete in the Sunset Conference Preliminaries at Los Alamitos High School on Thursday, April 18.
