Last season, the girls’ track team was moved up to the Gabilan Division because the boys had won 3 league championships in a row in the Mission Division. 

While that was great for the boys, the same could not be said for the girls. “We should’ve been in the Mission Division to be more competitive,” Co-Coach Steven Muñoz said. “The biggest challenge was just team wise not really being competitive.”

At last year’s PCAL Gabilan Championships, the team finished fourth out of six teams with no team placement at CCS. Despite this, Muñoz said many athletes rewrote the record boards for a second year in a row.

He said the main focus for the team was making sure individuals performed to their best ability. Individual event coaches had personal goals for their athletes and most, if not all, were met. 

The challenging part for the team was “fielding a competitive team for all 16 events in the Gabilan division,” Muñoz said. This year, the team placed fifth out of six teams at PCAL Masters, with many girls running personal bests, and some being the top in school history, and moving onto CCS Masters. 

Key returners for this year included Erika Castro (200m, 400m sprinter), Melina Ortega (100m, 200m, 400m sprinter), Alexa Martinez (200m, 400m sprinter), Jazmine Zamora (100m, 200m sprinter), Yaretzi Cornelio (1600m, 3200m distance), Angelica Murillo (800m, 1600m), Genesis Lopez (100m, 300m hurdles), and Nayeli Gil (long jump, triple jump). 

Athletes who caught the coaches attention this season were freshmen Vanessa Magenanas and Stacy Navarro for jumps and Aubrey Jones for sprints. “They performed really well, all of them are freshmen,” Muñoz said. “If Aubrey were to be at practice on the regular, she would be able to do some really amazing things.” Jones’ performance was even more impressive because she did softball and track at the same time.

Multiple athletes performed well this season with school records being broken or close to. 

At PCAL Masters, senior Erika Castro ran the second fastest 400 in school history with her time of 59.18 seconds, and junior Yaretzi Cornelio was a few tenths of a second from breaking the school record for the mile with her time of 5:18.33. 

Alondra Rios ran the third fastest time for the 2 mile with a time of 11:50.78, Nayeli Gil-Silva was 4th in history for the long jump, jumping 15 feet and 4 inches. Seniors Jazmine Zamora and Erika Castro, junior Melina Ortega, and freshman Aubrey Jones broke the school record in the 4×100 with a time of 50.90 seconds. 

For the CCS semi-finals, the 4×100, 4×400, and 4×800 team, along with juniors Yaretzi Corelio for the mile and 2 mile, Betty Camargo for the 800m, Alondra Rios for the 2 mile, and seniors Nayeli Gil-Silva for the long and triple jump and Erika Castro for the 200m, 400m, and relays all qualified. 

“Our athletes ran well,” Muñoz said. “As a whole it wasn’t as we expected.” Cornelio continues to come close to breaking records, as she was just a second off of the school record, again, with a time of 5:19.84 minutes in the mile. The same could be said about Castro with her time of 59.56 seconds for the 400m. 

CCS semi-finals wrapped up the season as unfortunately, no athletes moved on to finals. “Most of the girls performed close to their personal best, just with a few one offs,” Muñoz said.  

Castro agreed with her coach. “I felt good for my team overall since we were working hard,” she said. “It was exciting coming close to breaking the record.”

This year, the team’s focus was mainly on the athletes themselves rather than as a team. “It was great individually,” Muñoz said.