CHS Track Shows Early Season Success at Ray Cross Invite

Chelan Team Results from 43rd Annual Ray Cross Invite in Ephrata

Submitted by Erik Romero, CHS Head Track and Field Boys/Girls Coach

It started out as a WINTERWONDERLAND

We woke up to a few inches on the ground and phone calls from parents about are we canceling or are we not canceling..

We left at 6:30 am with a little over 30 kids for the Ray Cross Invite. With blankets and warm coffee in hand we headed south on the Columbia and noticed a little change in the weather. Instead of steady snow, we noticed rain, then as we started heading to Ephrata… Then it started to become overcast… A little chilly, but still better than when we left Chelan.

With that being said, we had a lot of kids compete and perform well understanding the weather and the size of the meet. Chelan was one of 30 schools that competed and as a coaching staff we were happy with the way kids performed. Teams ranged from all classifications; from 1B to big 4A schools from Spokane and Tri Cities Area.

YES, it would be awesome to have kids PR every single time. Which could happen, but with a young team you want to be smart with kids and make sure they don’t get hurt and also want to remind them that we are on a gradual journey to our League, District and possibly our State Track Meet toward the end of May. “Trust the PROCESS, don’t RUSH the Process”

On our boys side, we saw some success early from our two jumpers. Junior Bert Mendivil and Sophomore Christian Torres made the Finals in the Long Jump. Even in non ideal conditions, both jumped well and were able to get 6th and 9th overall. With Bert jumping 18 ft 9 inches and Torres 18 Ft 8 inches.

Christopher Knight finished 10th overall in a field of 40 in the 1600 meter run. His time was 4:55.60.

Matt Smith and Skyler Gordon threw the Javelin for us. They both did well with them throwing over 100 feet. Gordon 102 feet and Matt Smith beating his previous season best by 11 feet. Throwing 117 ft 9 inches.

Kevin Cazares threw discus for us and finished 18th with a throw of 103 ft 8 inches.

Javier Pastor had an interesting day. He not only was able to clear 10 feet in the Pole Vault, he also ran the 3200. Very rarely do you hear about something like this happening. He is a senior and he is trying to accomplish that hasnt happened for a very long time for Chelan Track. We call it, “The Quest”. This is where one athlete attempts to compete and receive a time or mark for ALL 17 events that Track has to offer. We will be keeping track of the events that he needs in order to meet “The Quest”

On our girls side, we had a lot going on.

We were led by Molly Oswald and Ava Dickes in our Sprints. They both competed in the 100 and 200 meters. Ava got 4th in the 100 and Molly was 8th. Ava’s time was 13.45 after two gun malfunctions and some chills caused for some slow times, but it didn’t stop us from having a good day. Molly’s time was 13.91. They came back later to compete in the 200, their times were as follow… Ava 27.85 finishing 3rd and Molly 27.84 placing 7th. They were also part of a two relay teams.. 4×100 and 4×200, The first was Ava, Matea Ivory, Lucy Bordner and Molly. They placed 6th out of 21 teams. With ONLY one day of handoff practice… the girls team got a time of 53.45. Girls 4×200 was Matea, Molly Oswald, Emilie Barnes and Ava. With less than a day of practice this team got 8th out of 19 teams. Their time was 1:54.76…

Lucy Bordner was our long jumper and she able to finish 13th out of 34th in the Triple Jump. She battled through some shin splits but was able to jump a distance of 29 ft 1 inch.

Overall we had a good day of getting kids to compete, get better in our field events and were able to have kids see some and face some big schools. Coaches were happy with what we saw and look forward to our Home Meet Next Thursday, March 29th at Sargent Field. Thank you for your help and support and we look forward seeing next week with some better weather.