Senior Serajh Esmail (far left) came in first in the 100-meter and 200-meter at the League Championship, May 10.
The girls’ team won the league title, the boys got third, and three members are moving on to sectionals in eight events in the track and field League Championship on May 10 at Placer High School.
Almost all the members competed against Delta, Foresthill, Cristo Rey and Western Sierra Collegiate Academy, enduring the bothersome 88-degree heat.
Boys’ 100-meter
First of 21: Senior Serajh Esmail (11.33 seconds)
“At the start of the race, my blocks slipped backwards as I pushed out of them,“ Esmail said.
“I slipped backward a good amount, and I lost a couple tenths of a second because of that. I knew I could have had a quicker time.”
Fourth: Sophomore Andrew Rossell (11.97)
Ninth: Junior Jaelan Trapp (12:47)
17th: Sophomore Steven Wang (13.25)
18th: Freshman George Nguyen (13.44)
Girls’ 100-meter
Second of 13: Sophomore Nina Dym (13.15)
Fourth: Sophomore Annya Dahmani (13.71)
Fifth: Junior Anny Schmidt (14.26)
11th: Freshman Kyra LaFitte (16.41)
Boys’ 200-meter
First of 17: Esmail (24.02)
Sixth: Wang (25.46)
Ninth: Trapp (26.28)
15th: Nguyen (28.07)
Girls’ 200-meter
First of 12: Johnson (27.95)
Second: Dym (28.47)
Sixth: Schmidt (31.39)
11th: LaFitte (36.41)
“Just waiting in the sun a few minutes for the race to start wore me down,” Dym said.
“Since it was my first time running the 200 (in high school), I didn’t have a time, so I was put in the last heat. “I think if I was in the first heat I could have gotten a better time because I would have had people to push me to go faster.”
“I liked the 200-meter a lot, which surprised me,” Schmidt said. “(It was) probably because it started out on a curve and I’m finding that it’s easier to run on a curve than in a straight line.”
Boys’ 400-meter
Third of eight: Wang (58.15)
Fourth: Trapp (59.45)
Last: Freshman Joe Mo (1:15:14)
Mo, who just recently joined the team, said that he did pretty bad.
After running the 400, “I got so tired (that) I wasn’t able to run the 100- and 200-meters,” he said.
Freshman Heidi Johnson (center) came in first in the 300-meter hurdles.
300-meter hurdles
First: Johnson (50.75)
Last: Dahmani (1:03:35)
“I was not expecting to do well because it’s a hard event (that) takes a lot of effort,” Dahmani said.
“It was really exhausting – (the) hardest event by far.”
100-meter hurdles
Second of five: Dahmani (18.26)
“I really wanted to get first so I could go to sectionals, but my steps were off, and I was thinking too much,” she said.
She attributed her slower time to a bad start, because the gun was quiet and unexpected.
Shotput
First of five: Sophomore Yasmin Gupta (26 feet, 3 inches)
“I was shocked with my performance (and placing),“ Gupta said. “It was a little uncomfortable in the heat, but we survived and we had a tent we could sit under.”
Long jump
First of five: Johnson (15’-4”)
Second: Dahmani (12’-8”)
Triple jump
First: Johnson (29’-1”)
“I had few competitors in (the field) events, (so) I only did one jump for each, not worrying about trying to get a great length since I had other events I had to focus on more,“ Johnson said.
Girls’ 4×100 relay
First of two: Johnson, Dym, Dahmani and Schmidt (55.88 seconds)
“I prefer running in (the heat) than in the cold, because when I’m cold, I have to warm up a lot in order for my body to be able to run,” Dahmani said.
Boys’ 4×100 relay
First of two: Esmail, Trapp, Wang and Rossell (46.16)
“We’ve never had enough people to do a relay in years, and we recruited Andrew the day before the meet,” Trapp said.
“Despite all of this, we still placed first.”
High jump
Second of three: Johnson (4’-8”)
“My foot really hurt, so I laid out for 4’-10”, which was the other girl’s best,” Johnson said.
“But (then) she got 5’, and when I attempted that height, I again felt a lot of pain in my foot, so I got second.”
Discus
Fifth of six: Sophomore Katia Dahmani (65’-6”)
Last: Gupta (54’-8”)
Though it was her first time participating in this event, Gupta said she was disappointed with her result.
The members who came in first place will be competing in sectionals at Turlock on Tuesday, May 17.
—By Mohini Rye
