Last week was a busy one for track athletes from Pierce and Colusa High Schools, as they participated in the third Sacramento Valley Meet on March 30 at Yuba College then headed to Durham for the RedHawks’ own Vern Regier Invitational on April 1.
It was a six team SVL competition at Orognen Field, however the Regier meet, named in honor of long time Colusa coach and educator Vern Regier was a much larger event with 16 squads participating.
While seven local individual athletes had top three finishes at both meets, the biggest win of all might have gone to the Pierce Bears’ men’s 4 x 100 relay team that surprised everyone but themselves when they edged favored Wheatland by four-tenths of a second in Durham last Friday.
The team, comprised of Anival Barriga-Solorio, Sebastian Ambriz, Fernando Valencia and Daniel Gonzalez ran an unofficial time of 45.53 to win at the SVL meet, then shaved off .23 seconds to win at the Regier meet and in doing so posted the sixth fastest time in the Northern Section this season.
One reason for the Bears success in the relay has been Ambriz, who after winning the 100 meters at Yuba College with an unofficial mark, took second in Durham as he set a personal record of 11.69.
Gonzalez, Pierce’s anchor in the relay, has also been impressive in the individual sprint races where he took third in the 100 meters last Wednesday then set a personal best of 24.21 in the 200 last Friday which was also good for third.
Rounding out the Bears contingency of double winners in the men’s varsity competition was Daniel Salud, who after finishing second in shot put at the SVL meet with a toss of 38’.5, set a personal record of 39’07 to take third two days later.
In the women’s running events, Pierce’s Cindy Corona was the runner up at Yuba College in an unofficial time of 1:09.85 in the 400 meters, then turned in a season’s best 1:09.81 to garner another second at the Regier.
Teammate Diana Huerta notched a win in 3200 last Wednesday with a time of 15:14.36 unofficially, then finished a strong third in Durham with a time of 16:02.88.
Colusa’s Salma Gonzales had two noteworthy performances last week as well, first outdoing her SVL rivals in both throwing events, then following up at the Regier meet with a personal best of 30’4 to win the shot and also take third in the discus with a mark of 74’.
The RedHawks return to action at the Chico Track and Field Invitational on Saturday while the Bears are next in Durham on April 13. ■