The track team gave it their all as the season ended, with many advancing to area and some setting new school records.

The track team ended the season going to district. 

“This season has been really good, it feels like its gone by really quickly and overall it’s been fun being with the team and training and getting closer with everybody,” track athlete Bianca Parker said. “On district week, we (ran) our events and did everything.”

The track team had a special meet on March 31.

“(That meet was) for all the jumpers at Mountain View and again (the next day) for the running event and the throwing event,” coach Corina Marrufo said.

Marrufo had concerns after coming back from the pandemic.

“We had a good turn out this year, but one of my biggest concerns was getting enough kids and then just kind of getting them back into the routine of working out, it’s been hard since everybody’s been at home they weren’t used to coming to school every day and staying late and working out, so that’s been a challenge,” Marrufo said.

The team practices to get into shape for the season.

“Practice has been pretty good. We’ve been really busy so its been kept light, but in the beginning of the season it was pretty hard because we were trying to build up strength, our core, build up our muscles in our legs just to be able to get out of blocks and become much quicker or build up endurance depending on which events we’re doing,” Parker said.

Everyone put in hard work and effort.

“The kids have been doing really well, they exceed my expectations every single year. I did notice when we went out of town to Arizona we usually struggle because there’s just so much competition, but this year we were able to do really well,” Marrufo said.

The coach looked forward to new achievements.

“I look forward to kids breaking school records. So far we have one girl that’s on the brink of breaking a school record at pole vault and I have a few other kids that have already broken those school records. That has definitely been really rewarding over the years and I’m just hoping that they get better and that we’re able to advance to regionals and maybe even state,” Marrufo said.

Some of these achievements are yet to be reached.

“Karissa has not broken the school record just yet, but now I have Brianna Mendoza, who is on the brink of breaking the school record as well,” Marrufo said.

The team has many obstacles they must face.

“I think the challenge is just placing everybody where they’re (going to) perform the best. We’re not allowed to put them in everything, we can only put them in five events at the most and then make sure they’re at their peak performance. It gets a little difficult because district is all week long and we’re not able to practice a whole lot, so we’re just hoping that they are going to be at their peak performance at district,” Marrufo said.

The athletes keep their best mindset to conquer any worries they have and do their best.

“These girls are pretty fast and I think my challenge is more so just trying to get out of my head and be able to compete to my best ability instead of comparing myself to others and just going out there and giving it my all instead of limiting myself,” Parker said.

The athletes have hopes of fulfilling their goals at district.

“This week would be considered our last meet because now from here on its whoever makes it, so hopefully I can keep making it and keep going all the way to maybe regionals, even state, but that is my goal, to go to state and drop down time in my 400 (meter dash) and hopefully run a 58 (second) maybe a 56 (second) dash if I’m lucky enough,” Parker said.

The athletes are reflecting on their performance and results post-regionals.

“My results in the 400 were that I placed first in district with a time of 59.63 seconds,” Parker said. “I feel quite content with my time because I’m under a minute, but I am still aiming to hit my goal of trying to get down to a 58. I did like the way I ran it and I’m truly lucky to have ran with my friends who’ve I’ve made over the season because we all hyped each other up and gave each other the motivation to give it our all for the race.”

There are a few things the team hopes to accomplish by the end of the season.

“I’m hoping that with the varsity kids we get more than we did last year, we had 14 advance to area, I’m hoping to get a little bit more. Our relays look pretty solid this year so we might have a good chance at advancing at relays, and I’m just hoping that every kid comes out of here at least happy with the results of what they got and be ready to work at it again for next year,” Marrufo said.

The team was able to attain some of their goals.

“We actually had 16 athletes qualify for Area. Our boys 4×100 set the school record with a 43.05. These boys are Jorge Hernandez Facio, Andrew Felix, Joshua Keough, and Anthony Rey. We did have few athletes who got hurt so we only managed to qualify 8 of those athletes to regionals. But this is definitely an improvement from last year. It is not over yet. We have regionals this week, so I am looking forward to what is to come,” Marrufo said.

Although they didn’t get the scores they wanted, coach Marrufo is proud of her team.

“Overall placewise we didn’t land where we wanted, we came in 5th, but we definitely have achieved a lot of milestones this year despite the place we got,” Marrufo said.