Panthers Show Improvement at ARC Beaver Relays

It is just about this time in the track and field season that some substantial improvements start to be seen. With a few extra weeks of practice athletes jump and throw farther, run faster, or go higher. With a sunny warm day in Sacramento, the Hartnell College track & field team saw some solid improvements in all events.

The short relay teams started the day for the Panthers with both genders running season bests. The team of Shaq Bowman, Quentin Minor, Alex Azevedo, and Marcus Washington lowered their season mark to 43.06 in the 4x100 meter relay. That mark now leads all Coast Conference teams. In the ladies version, the baton passed between Celina Murillo, Linda Delgado, Taylor Blaha, and Maribel Ortega to cover the one lap distance in 50.42. Blaha also ran season bests in the 100 meters (13.03), 100 meter hurdles (13.86) and 200 meters (26.80) to qualify provisionally to the regional championship meet in those events. Malena Grover was the winner of the 1500 meter run (4:54.84) with teammates Rachel Shimabukuro (5:00.35), Brandi Hobson (5:04.80), and Lizette Garcia (5:04.93) improving their season bests. Garcia also won her heat of the 800 meters in 2:29.39 and Shimabukuro lowered her season best 5000 meter time to 19:20.25. Nolan Fuqua ran a lifetime best in the 400 meters (51.15). Diego Leon was the winner of the 5000 meter run in a season best 15:06.12 helping teammate Justin Carrancho (15:22.05) to the State "B" qualifying mark and Luis Vargas (15:53.90) and Javier Garcia (15:54.98) to season bests. Former Palma HS product Rhett Gonzalez made his Hartnell debut with a solid 15.83 in the 110 high hurdles to lead teammate Nathan Bishop (16.85) to a season best. Tito Chaidez dipped under the Norcal provisional mark in the 3000 meter steeplechase (10:14.19). Frankie Gutierrez flirted with the 150 foot mark in the javelin with his season best 149'7".

For full ARC Beaver Relays results: http://www.directathletics.com/results/track/37040.html