Last year, the boys’ track team won its third consecutive title in the Mission Division. For the second time in school history, they won back-to-back league championships and moved up to the top division, the Gabilan.
The coaching staff has high hopes for their athletes. “I want to see our returners compete and our entire team, every athlete compete at their best and be the best they can be,” Coach Steven Munoz said. “If that means they go on to State, great. If they don’t make it that far, as long as they can perform at their best is more than enough.”
Despite losing some key athletes like Devin Tapia and Jason Medina due to graduation, many returners are in it to compete again – seniors Gustavo Perez, Nicolas Padilla, and Rogelio “Kike” Jacinto; juniors Fernando Herrera and Joe Montoya; and sophomore Michael Ordaz. Some returners made it to CCS and qualified for the semi-finals, 4 individuals and a 4×400 relay. Individual qualifiers were Gustavo Perez in the 1600m and the 3200m, Fernando in the 3200m, and Padilla and Jacinto in the triple jump. “I’m currently a top jumper in CCS, so I’d like to do well at the CCS finals and hopefully go to state,” Padilla said. “As a team I would also like to win another league championship.”
According to Munoz, the team’s strengths are the distance races such as the 800m, 1600m, 3200m, long jump and triple jump. “These are the events where we score the most points,” he said. “My thoughts and goals for the season are to break the record in the mile. I want to PR and hopefully run the second fastest time for the two mile. I want to run 4 minutes and four seconds for two miles. My goal is to run 9.18,” Perez said. “As a team I want to see all my teammate’s improve, and hopefully we can win another league title, even though it’ll be a little bit more difficult compared to last year. Hopefully we can all achieve big improvements.”
Munoz said he’s looking forward to seeking improvement as a whole team. “We have enough room for improvement everywhere, some of our focus would be the sprints and the throws.”
The boys will have to push through both mentally and physically to achieve their goals. “I would say injury and mental toughness are always some of those obstacles to overcome,” Munoz said. “Whether as a runner or a jumper, breaking through these negative thoughts in the mind can affect one’s performance. So being able to overcome that is a big barrier.”
The team started their season with four meets at Palma, North Salinas, Carmel, Hollister and North County. At the Allen Dunn Haybaler Invite, the team placed 4th. At the North County meet the boys won 1st place for both Varsity and JV. “I think most of us have had pretty good starting points through the first few races. Even if we’re not at our goals just yet, there is still a chance to get better and perhaps even go beyond what we anticipate for ourselves,” senior Carlos Alfaro said.
The team lost their second dual-meet as they were confronted with strong competition from Hollister’s team. “As a team we came up short this season, as this is my first loss ever as a junior and a team. At such meets as a team we have to be able to make sure that we get the points that we need to do to win and eventually it will lead us to winning league championships,” Herrera said.
The coaching staff will like to keep the student-athletes motivated. “We’re trying to make sure that their end goal is in sight, maybe not necessarily as a team but also as an individual to try and improve and move as far as possible throughout the season,” Coach Munoz said.
