
The comets headed to Independence high school on 3/26 and faced their greatest challenge of the season so far. Due to a field trip, the team was without 2014 Team MVP Daniela Camacho, 2015 points leader Paloma Contreras, and standout performers such as Nathan Bernardo, Hector Ramirez, Davion Thomas and Charli Chircop among others. Despite these blows, the comets fought hard against the 76ers coming away with a close victory on the girl’s side while suffering their first defeat of the season on the boy’s side.
The meet kicked off with the girl’s 4×100 team pulling off their second win of the season. The team of Maria Mendoza, Andrea Ortiz, Karen Montes, and Gabby Aguilar ran 56.69, beating their seasons best by over a second. This group of girls is dramatically changing the fortunes of the James Lick sprint teams, a year ago the best time the team could muster all season was a 59.64, the current group is 3 seconds better and counting. Julia Cruz placed 3rd in the 1600 with an 8 second pr, running 6:31.9. Elizabeth Guevara followed with a pr of her own, 6:45.5. The boy’s 1600 turned out to be extremely exciting. Karan Singh was boxed in with a lap to go in the slowly paced race, he fought Abel Padilla tooth and nail to pull away at the line running 5:07 with an extremely impressive 60 second final lap.
Maria followed up her strong 4×100 leg, running 19.17 for the 100 hurdles to win the race. Maria’s PR from 2014 was 19.75. The Independence boys swept the 110 hurdles, and then the 400 putting the comets in a deeper hole still. The lady comets proved successful in their 400, with Gabby running home to victory in 1:11.91 for a season best only .4 off her PR. Candice Calantoc continued her strong freshman season, running 1:15.41 and Daisy Nava followed her in 1:16 with Karen Montes coming home in 1:19, all PRs.
Maria took her second victory of the day, with an official PR of 13.94 in the 100m dash.Karen followed up her 400 with a huge pr in the 100 for 3rd place, 14.69 beating her old best of 15.20. Manroop Kahlon made her debut in 15.90, a solid showing. The boys were unable to secure any points in the 100, though Kelvin Arenas impressed with a 12.73 clocking. Teammates Ralph Sanchez, 13.15, Austin Swank, 13.71 and Isaak Herrera 14.57 also ran PRs.
In the 800s, Karan dominated his race cruise home for victory in 2:20 while Jose Jiminez finished in second at 2:21 for a 15 second PR. Julia finished 3rd in her 800 and broke 3 for the first time with a 2:59.94.
As the running events continued, the Throwers were hard at work as well. Robert Rios won Shot for the 3rd time in 3 meets, throwing 40 feet and a half inch. Alejandra Ceron matched the win streak with a PR of 27’5, moving her up to 7th on the all time James Lick top list despite her freshmen status. Diana Ramos and Patty Saldivar made their debuts throwing 16s in shot and mid 30s in disc, coring 1 3rd place each. Isaac Jiminez and Damian Sanchez, both inched closer to 30. Robert followed his shot put win with a 2nd place in Discus. Alejandra made it a double victory with a throw of 62’3.
Maria ran 56.35 in 2014 at league trials to move into 2nd on the all time JL list. She worked hard to finally beat that time, winning the race against Independence in 55.06, moving closer to the school record. Hadji Yono-Cruz ran 49.4 for 3rd place, but is still struggling with adjusting to high school hurdles.
Hadji also won the triple jump with a high school best of 36 feet and a half inch. Crystal Nguyen took second place in the girl’s triple, with a jump of 24’11, an off day for her. Crystal, Elyse Elder, and Mitzy Licon swept the long jump with marks of 13’3, 12’8 and 12’6.5. Elyse also added a victory in the high jump, clearing 4’4 in a solid performance. Karan also won the boy’s high jump clearing 5’8 in impressive fashion.
Stanley Nguyen ran 24.81 in his 200m debut, placing 3rd though injuring his thigh in the process. Andrea ran her first 200 of her career and clocked 30.15 for a win, making it onto teh school’s top 10 list in the event. Karan won his fourth and final event, with an 11:29 in the 3200. Hector Ramirez shoed up in time to run 11:36 for 3rd in the event. Julia finished her day with a 3rd and final huge pr, runing 15:00 just 2 weeks after 16:08 was her pr. With so many members missing, both 4×400 teams suffered, and both relays lost to teh 76ers to finish the meet.
The 76ers won the boys meet decisively, 88-39,
The Comets wonthe girls meet by a final margin of 65-62. The 5 wins combined for the James Lick Track team is already the best win total in over 5 years, the team will continue to build on it when the face a tough Yerba Buena team on April 2nd at home. Come out and root your comets on!