This year the Alisal girl’s track team had an amazing season. “We accomplished many great things that we really weren’t expecting,” said senior Patty Avila. In previous years the track team has struggled to field a team but this year Alisal had a full girl’s track team, with most of them being first year runners. Many of them broke school records that had stood for over sixteen years and they also came a point away from winning the league title.

Patty Avila, Karina Arevalo, Adilene Sanchez, and Nathaly Sanchez, are the four individuals who ran in the 4x 400 relay and broke the school record the first time that they ran it. The record that had stood for almost sixteen years was 4:18 and the first time that they ran it their time was 4:15, in a meet against Monte Vista Christian. When they ran it again in the city meet their time improved to 4:13:4. They all felt great to having been part of this achievement, though they say that it took a lot of hard work and dedication. “I’m very proud that the girls rose to the occasion and of their commitment,” comments Mr. Mendez., one of the track coaches.

Mendez said that he was very impressed with Karina Arevalo, Deleynna Martinez, and Marly Ongy. Arevalo in her first year of running broke three records, two individual school records and one team record. She joined track because she had played softball for three years and she wanted to try an individual sport. At first she started as a sprinter but she wasn’t doing that well at it so she tried the three-hundred meter hurdles and broke the school record with a time of 48:37. She also tried pole vaulting and broke another school record with a vault of 38’7”. She regrets not having joined track since her freshmen year because she never thought that she could have achieved all this, and this has given her more confidence to try new things. Her motivation was that she liked to run and didn’t want to get beat.

Martinez has been in track for two years now and she has broken a school record with the triple jump with 34’2” but as if that weren’t good enough she keeps on breaking her records with every time that she jumps and she feels great about this. Ongy is the second best triple jumper with a distance of 32’9”. Mendez feels that she is a very hard worker along with all the other girls that he mentioned.

Freshman Adilene Sanchez has broken the school record for both the one and two mile with times of 5:27 and 12:03.

Most of these girls joined track because it would help them stay in shape for other sports but they ended up really liking it. They all worked together and with that team effort they won the MBL Championships. To accomplish what this team did “It took practice, dedication, a passion for the sport, and a positive attitude,” says Sanchez. The coaches motivated the girls by showing that they cared for and believed in them. They all said that this was a very positive experience because they all ended the season with more confidence and they proved to themselves that they were capable of winning.