By Jailene Torres

The girls track and field team took second place at both the April 4 Hornet Invitational and the Red North Regional meet on April 1. We’re publishing Coach Abel Pereyra’s reports of the meets later in this article.

When people think of track they automatically assume it’s all about running. Although track does involve a lot of running, there is also an “and field” that people leave out. There’s a lot more to track not only as a sport but as a team as well.

Events in track include running, throwing, and jumping. The runners on the team are split into two categories, sprinters and distance. Sprinters run shorter races like the 55m dash, the 4×200 relay, and 4×400 relay. Distance runners run longer races like the 4×800 relay, the miles and the two mile. Runners are often in the spotlight since everybody surrounds the track at meets. It takes a lot of courage, focus, and support to run in front of strangers, but the girls on the team are very concentrated and they we each other.

There are not a lot of throwers but they are a very important part of the team. Throwers also have two separate categories some throw the shot, an 8 pound ball, and others throw the discus, some may do both. Throwing takes a lot of skill, patience, and technique and although throwing is a very isolated event at track meets, the throwers are very supportive of each other.

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There are not a lot of jumpers either; however, the few jumpers that we do have are really great at what they do. Our jumpers either do triple jump or long jump. Triple jump and long jump also take a lot of skill and focus, in order to jump at the perfect moment. Our jumpers are very brave, their events take place at the center of the track in indoor meets.

The team practices 5 days a week from 3:30 p.m to 5:00 p.m. The girls warm up by running four laps and stretching. The laps are led by a different girl on the team each day and the girls run together as a group each day, never leaving anyone behind. The girls on  the team motivate each other to better themselves as athletes and as the person they are. They hustle to keep their grades up. And most of them have great grades thanks to Coach P.

The following is Coach Pereyra’s report on the first two outdoor meets.

Hornet Invitational 4/4/15

Just about every event in this meet was do or die for us.  We traded points all day long with a powerful Lincoln Park squad.  Dianas Levko and Herrera helped immensely by taking 1st and 2nd in the high jump.  Also in the field, we got a boost in the shot with a 1st place from Jenny Gonzalez and 3rd from Jaritza Delgado and Cintia Garcia grabbed 1st in the triple jump.  

On the track we started strong with Adriana Espinoza and Karla Colula placing 3rd and 4th respectively in the 3200m and the 4x800m relay team of Diana Herrera, Elizabeth Ramirez, Cintia Garcia, and Maria Figueroa coming from behind to finish 3rd.  The 4x100m team of Jessica Banderas, Jierra Swayzer, Arely Morales, and Karrina Stevens took 2nd and the 4x200m and 4x400m relays both came in 3rd.  

Marianna Furyk pitched in with a 2nd in the 300m hurdles and Cintia and Maria made valiant returns (their 4th and 3rd events of the day respectively) to take 3rd and 6th place in the 1600m.

We showed huge improvements all over the place and ended up a tight second place in the final standings.  We will get them next time.

Red North Regional 4/1/13

This meet included 10-12 north side rivals featuring Lincoln Park, Von Steuben, Taft, Schurz, Amundsen, Lake View, Senn, and Prosser.  

Thanks to some serious leadership in the field events including Diana Herrera and Diana Levko in the high jump, Cintia Garcia in the triple jump, Alyona Urgryn and Karrina Stevens in the long jump, and Jenny Gonzalez and Ariana Colula in the shot put we held on for a second place finish against some pretty tough competition.

The rest of the meets are scheduled for the following dates:

Sat., April 18, Luther North Invitational, 8:30am-3:00pm

Sat., April 25, CPS F/S Girls’ Championship; Hanson Stadium, 9:00am-5:00pm

Tues., May 5, CPS Varsity Girls’ Trials; Hanson Stadium, 4:00pm-9:00pm

Fri., May 8, CPS F/S Championship; Hanson Stadium, 4:00pm-8:00pm

Sat., May 9, CPS Championship; Hanson Stadium, 10:00am-2:00pm

STATE SERIES

Thurs., May 14, Illinois 3A Sectional; Concordia Univ.; River Forest, IL, 5:00-8:30pm

Thurs.-Sat., May 21-23, Illinois Championship; Eastern Illinois Univ.; Charleston, IL