By Heather Carr
Last Thursday, the Fountain Valley track team faced off against Los Alamitos in one of the most highly-anticipated dual meets of the season. There, the Barons delivered strong performances against the competition and swept on almost all levels, with the boys varsity teams winning the meet with a score of 71-61, while the girls varsity came short of first place with a score of 61-64.
On the distance side, the boys varsity battled it out against Los Alamitos in the 800 meters event, where David Abraham (’14) received second place with a PR of 1:59.06 and Hunter Gulino (’14) placed third by running a 2:01.07.
“They [Los Alamitos] were expected to win the 800, going into it they were seated one [and] two, but we pulled through and got second and third place, which the 800 not being our best event was actually very good,” Abraham reported. “Overall, boys varsity, we did well , we won, and our girls varsity performed very well, but it was so close and [they] barely, barely were outkicked.”
Results for shot put varied, with both the boys and girls frosh soph teams placing 1-2-3 in their events, while some of the members from the Varsity squad expressed mixed reactions.
“I took third place today behind two Los Al girls. I could have done better, I could have taken second but my ankle was really bugging me from my ankle sprain from basketball,” said Brenda Erickson (’14), who placed third in the varsity girls shot put. “But we had a frosh from club today to varsity, it was windy and she PR’d, which is good. It was a good picture for shot put.”
The sprinters also gave impressive efforts and many scored points by finishing in the top three, though some were not fully satisfied with their times.
“We feel like we didn’t really do good, but we did place, we got first and second,” said Leslie Garcia (’16), who won her race in the girls frosh soph, 400m with a time of 1:04.00.
Despite scoring lower than their expectations, the Barons are looking forward to the tri-meet next Thursday against Huntington Beach and Edison high schools and to competing against Los Alamitos again at the Sunset League Finals in May.
“The Barons hung tough, but lost,” stated Coach Talpash. “[But] The girls have a chance at League Finals [and] the boys are trying for a fourth league title in a row.”
