Friday, May. 09, 2008

Track: Los Banos sends 12 hopefuls to division, heads to Sacramento on Wednesday

Tigers take 100-meter dash, boys and girls plan to compete in 12 events

The Los Baños track and field teams made their way to Patterson for the Central California Conference Meet on Wednesday, facing six other schools in the league for the top four placements in each event. The top four finishers are set to go to Sacramento next Wednesday for the league's divisional meet.

And after taking on the league's toughest competitors, 12 of Los Baños' very own varsity Tigers will take the track in meet.

"Preparing for the next meet will consist of fine-tuning technique in each event," coach Carlos Campos said. "At this point in the season, that is all you can do.

"There's not a whole lot more we can do to get faster," he said. "But I was still impressed with those who qualified Wednesday."

In the varsity boys' events, Kenny Johnson pulled off a close, but clear first place victory in the 100-meter dash, finishing above the league's fastest at 11.13 seconds.

"The best part about Kenny's win," Campos said, "was that we have him back next year.

"However, it seemed he didn't have the respect he deserved until yesterday," he said. "He wasn't the favorite to win the race in other coaches' and reporters' eyes. But all the coaches in Los Baños all knew Kenny would win the 100-meter."

In the 400-meter event, Dominique Davenport took second at 51.92 seconds, while Nelson Ma placed second in the 300-meter hurdles.

In the 1600-meter distance race, Flavio Castro took third with a finishing time of 4 minutes, 40.5 seconds. Lucas Velasquez came in third in the 3200-meter race, finishing only 26 seconds behind first place at 10 minutes, 27.63 seconds.

In the 400-meter relay, teammates Johnson, Andrae Jones, Oscar Marquez and Donavan Williams took a fourth place finish at 45.10 seconds.

In the field events, Andrew Vander Poel will represent Los Baños in the discus event with a second place finish at 139 feet, 5 inches. Jones took fourth place in the high jump event at 5 feet, 6 inches.

And in the long jump event, Williams and Johnson came in second and third place at 20 feet, 5.5 inches and 20 feet, 4.5 inches respectively. Williams and Johnson also placed second and fourth in the triple jump event; Williams at 43 feet, 3 inches and Johnson at 40 feet, 7.75 inches.

For the varsity girls' events, Amanda Smothers will represent Los Baños in the 300-meter hurdles event after finishing four at 53.31 seconds.

Kate Howard came in fourth place in the discus event, with a final throw of 98 feet, 2 inches. Whitney Parks took second place in the pole vault event at 9 feet.

"Overall, I would say the season has been successful," Campos said, as Los Baños can look forward to having many of these talented atheletes back to compete in the 2009 season.

"We have a lot of young talent," he said. "Our boys' junior varsity team hasn't lost in two years, so next year they will make up a good part of our varsity team."

As far as the girls' season, while it ended a little differently than the boys', Campos said even though it was a rough season in terms of the "win-loss column," in terms of improvement, the girls showed their coaches what improvement really meant to them by the end of the season.

"We had many freshmen and sophomores running in varsity," Campos said. "These girls were tough all year because we would lose at one meet, but bounce back in the next meet and improve their personal bests.

"It's tough to compete against older girls, and with the amount of dedication the girls' team showed us," he said, "I have much appreciation for all of the girls I had this year."

The Tigers will be at the Sacramento City College track on Wednesday for the league's divisional meet.

Enterprise reporter

Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at

ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com

Enterprise reporter Samantha Salas can be reached by phone at (209)388-6562 or by e-mail at ssalas@losbanosenterprise.com