Story & photos by Jennifer Corriea
COLUSA COUNTY, CA (MPG) – Having participated in two invitational meets last week, track athletes from Pierce and Colusa are out of the blocks quickly this season and are showing that they are contenders amongst Northern Section competition.
Both the Bears and RedHawks began last week at Harrison Stadium in Oroville for the Jerry Johnson Mid-Week Classic where the Pierce varsity boys had the best finish of the day taking second to Las Plumas.
Pierce was particularly strong in the throwing and relay events where they captured first in both shot and discus along with sweeping the sprint relays.
Alfonso Orozco won the discus with a toss of 126.00 while Daniel Bustamante took the shot with a mark of 41.02.
In the 4×100 relay, the team of Drew Burnum, David Aguirre, Erick Montanez and Nathan McIntosh crossed the line in a time of 45.84, then in the 4×400 McIntosh, Montanez and Aguirre combined with Leo Andrade to complete the race in 3:45.91.
The Bears additionally made their presence known in the individual events with Montanez (56.67) ending the 400-meter race in second and Adrian Carillo claiming third in the 300 meter hurdles with a personal best effort of 49:59.
Colusa’s varsity boys also found success in Oroville with Benji Granados finishing second and third in the 3200 and 1600 meters respectively in times of 11:14.46 and 5:17.69.
William England brought home the RedHawks’ only medal in the jumping events after taking third in the triple jump with a mark of 35.09.
Both Colusa and Pierce had good showings in the varsity girls running events, especially at middle and long distances.
The RedHawks’ Rajdeep Shoker was a double winner in the 1600 and 3200 meters with subsequent times of 6:18.24 and 13:43.90.
For the Bears, Karina Grajedra (3:02.62) and Carla Moreno (3:02.70) finished one-two in the 800 meters, while Colusa’s Danica Chavez (1:08.24) was third in the 400 meters.
Concluding the week last Friday at Corning’s Cardinal Classic, local athletes again held their own in the 18-team competition.
In the jumping events, Pierce’s Alex Orozco uncorked a personal best of 18.6 to win the long jump, while England took first place in the triple jump with a mark of 36.6.
For the Bear varsity boys, Montanez (56.60) shaved seven-tenths off his previous time to claim second place in the 400, Aguirre (11.52) was third in the 100, Carillo (19.74) was third in the 110 meter hurdles and
Alfonso Orozco rounded out the third place finishes with a throw of 132.9 in the discus.
Colusa’s Shoker captured second in both the 1600 and 3200 meter races with times of 6:27.32 and 13:41 respectively.
Grajedra (2:53.33) was third in the 800 and Macey Myers (1:11.46) had a top three finish in the 400 meters for Pierce.
Both the Bears and RedHawks were in Winters on Wednesday to complete in a Sacramento Valley League meet.