Gustine High School’s track and field team took home four first place finishes at a Southern Athletic League (SAL) meet at Waterford High School last Wednesday.
Brady Ramos, Juan Aguilera and Isabella Haro finished at the top in at least one event.
Ramos finished in first place in the men’s junior varsity 800-meter and 1600-meter dashes. He recorded a new personal time of 2 minutes, 36.29 seconds in the 800 meters.
Aguilera won the men’s JV 400-meter dash with a personal record time of 58 seconds. His time is now the ninth-best time for the event in the program’s history.
Haro won the women’s varsity discus event with a throw of 23.88 meters, a new personal record. Her throw is now the all-time best for the event in program history.
The men’s JV and women’s varsity teams finished in fifth and sixth place overall, respectively. Denair High School finished at the top for overall placement for the men’s varsity and junior varsity teams, with at least a 41-point margin from second place. Waterford finished at the top of the overall standings for women’s varsity.
First-year head coach Sarah Bedford said that the various records broken by Gustine’s players are a testament to their hard work from their practices.
“That’s exciting, [it] shows that their practice is paying off. I’m encouraging them to strive to beat their PR (personal record) at the next meet again,” Bedford said.
While Gustine didn’t win any events for the remainder of the meet, some athletes on the team recorded new personal records, some of which cemented them in the program’s record book.
Aguilera finished in third place for the JV long jump with a recorded jump of 4.51 meters. Following Aguilera was Jeff Camara, who recorded a jump of 3.75 meters to finish in seventh place.
Haro concluded her meet with a top five placement in the women’s varsity shot put event. She recorded a personal record throw of 7.24 meters. The throw became the seventh best recorded throw for the event in program history.
Cecilia Rivera finished in the top 10 of the women’s varsity 100-meter dash with a personal record time of 14.48 seconds. Rivera made program history as her time entered the top 10 for best recorded times in the event.
Gustine’s team finished in eighth place in the 4x100-meter relay, recording a time of 59.33 seconds. The time made it into the program’s top eight all-time times recorded in the event.
Gustine will have more than a week off before they head back to Waterford for another SAL meet on April 9th. The first event will begin at 2 p.m.
Navtej Hundal is a freelance journalist in Stanislaus County.
