With the end of the school year fast approaching, some postseason events kept the track and field and tennis teams busy this past week. Following is a recap of the action for the squads.
TRACK AND FIELD
Escalon was at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 and 5 meet, hosted at Riverbank High School. Trials were May 14; finals were May 16.
On Wednesday, said head coach Arend Jones, the Cougars had “a decent showing in both the girls shot put and boys discus.”
Four girls got to throw with Gloria Segura placing sixth in the trials at 32 feet, 10.5 inches. Gracie Airola placed eighth, Audrey Ware 13th and Kamille Thomas placed 15th.
Two boys threw the discus, Nathan Belletto placed sixth at 133 feet, six inches and Jaecy Aldasoro placed 11th.
In the girls pole vault, Annabelle Armstrong placed sixth, clearing eight feet, six inches.
On the track, Trenton Epps placed 10th in the 300-meter hurdles while the boys 4-by-800 relay team of Gabriel Cortes, Rigoberto Ramirez, Otto Perreira and Nate Millard placed 11th.
On the girls side, Alondra Gonzalez was 17th in the 100-meter sprint. The girls 4-by-800-meter relay team of Emma Churchill, Jocelyn Espinoza, Georgia Northcutt and Victoria Calderon placed seventh. The girls 4-by-100 relay of Alondra Gonzalez, Madisyn Vandykhuizen, Ava Rodriguez and Megan Silva placed 12th.
Friday, May 16 featured finals for the qualifiers as well as other field events that didn’t go on Wednesday, Jones noted.
“In girls high jump, Ronni Keo was an alternate that managed to compete because other athletes dropped,” Jones said. “She jumped well, hitting a new PR of four feet, 10 inches and nearly cleared five feet, which would have automatically qualified her for Masters.”
Keo, a freshman, placed sixth overall.
Nate Millard placed eighth in the 800 meters and Calan Crumbley placed eighth in the 400.
Megan Silva placed fifth in the 100 meters but in the 200, she placed second overall with a time of 25.73, advancing her on to Masters.
Also moving on to the Masters is the girls 4-by-400 relay team, which placed fourth overall in the Friday finals and featured Ava Rodriguez, Addison Correia, Georgia Northcutt and Megan Silva.
“Masters will be held on Friday and Saturday in Folsom,” Jones said.
TENNIS
After sweeping to a 9-0 victory in the second round of the playoffs at home against El Camino on May 13, the Cougars had to hit the road to face off at Amador on Thursday, May 15.
There, the host Buffaloes captured the win with a dominating 7-2 performance.
“It was a tough loss for our team, we had played Amador in preseason so we felt good going into the match,” said head coach Julianne Eavenson.
Wins for Escalon came at girls number two doubles, Ashlyn Paxman and Haven MacKinnon taking a 6-2, 6-4 win and the mixed doubles team of Brien Novetzke and Violet DaSilva winning in three sets, after losing the first 3-6, coming back to win the next two, 7-4, 10-7.
“Laura Schussmann at girls singles number two played her best match all season. She fought long and hard and almost won in her tiebreaker,” said Eavenson. “Violet and Brien had a phenomenal match at mixed as well, held their own against two very experienced Amador players and fought hard to secure their win.”
Individual sections were due this week for the Cougars, with Nathan Rose going in as the boys number one singles top seed, Daniel Adams and Luca Cerasi as the top seed boys doubles. Also, Emma Rangel and Marina Franza are the number two seed in girls doubles, with Landon Underwood and Kali Castellano the mixed doubles number two seed.
