CORNING, CA (MPG) – Four of the five county high school teams made their way to Corning last Friday afternoon for the Cardinal Invitational and came away with some impressive results in the early season.
Among the 19 other Northern Section squads present, Pierce and Maxwell finished in the top 10 in both the varsity boys and girls’ divisions, while Williams and Princeton also made appearances.
In the varsity boys competition, the Bears took second, then in the varsity girls grouping finished sixth, while the Panthers were sixth and ninth respectively in those same categories.
Pierce had two first place finishes including JR Figueroa’s (16.86) personal best in the 110 meter hurdles and Thomas Sweet’s 40-9.5 mark in the triple jump.
Furthermore, the Bears performed particularly well in the relays and the other field events.
Pierce’s 4 x 100 boys’ relay team comprised of Sweet, Noah Sucevich, Joanathan Vasquez Hernandez and Nate Macintosh crossed the line second in a time of 46.01, while the girls’ 4 x 400 relay squad consisting of Rosalyn Huerta, Shidia Martinez-Jimenez, Charlotte Reyna and Lyla Maldonado also took second in their first outing of the season with a time of 4:54.4.
Additional second place finishers for the Bears included Fernando Martinez (40-2.5) in boys’ shot put, Joel Haro (111-9) in boys’ discus and Grace Szmurlo (87-6) in girls’ discus.
Maldonado was second and third respectively in the in the girls’ 400 and 800 with times of 1:10.67 and 2:49.18 respectively, while Vasquez Hernandez (20-5.5) was third in the boys’ long jump.
Meanwhile, for the Panthers, who may have one of their largest squads ever, three athletes came away with gold medals.
Connor Pearson won the shot put with a toss of 40-11, Tanner Vierra claimed first in the high jump setting a meet record of 5-10 in the process and Jadyn Karlonas out ran the field in the girls’ 400 meters finishing in a time of 1:10.67.
Rounding out the medalists for Maxwell was Erik New who finished third in discus with a toss of 111-5.
As for Williams, distance runner Andrea Velazquez was third in the 3200 meters having crossed the line in a time of 14:26.1.
Teams reconvene today at Orland’s Black Butte Invitational.