Track and Field sprints to victory

By Terry Tang

Track and Field started off their season with their first win against the season against Prospect High School. Since then they have also competed against Pioneer High School and Oak Grove High School.

“I initially joined track for the sport, but I enjoyed it for the people. I love the friendships that I built with people I usually don’t talk to at school and also the coaches that I’ve grown with,” said sprinter Jacob Alviar.

Their most recent meet is a quad meet including James Lick, Sobrato and Lincoln High School.

“It was kind of pressuring running against other players because everyone is so good and fast so I always feel like I need to do my best to help the team,” said sprinter Jennifer Luong.

While there are regular meets there are invitationals specifically geared towards the high achieving athletes with outstanding abilities. The key difference between invitationals and meets is that invitationals are more competitive.

“Invitationals are definitely different from regular meets because at regular meets it’s usually only between two schools, but at invitationals it’s dozens of schools and the level of competition is definitely up there,” said Luong.

The track team had ran two previous invitationals: St. Francis Invitationals and Serra Top 7. Their most recent invitational would be Quicksilver Invitationals on Sat., April 6.

“(Serra Top 7 Invitationals was especially hard because) I was tired from fantastic and I was kind of sick,” said sprinter Gabriel Pasion.

“The invitational weren’t necessarily hard, but they were very intimidating at first because everyone is so good,” said Luong.

Some challenges so far are in the season are injuries which are fairly common during midseason and having to commute to a different school to practice on a track since Piedmont’s track is still under construction.

“The hardest thing I’ve faced so far in the season was not having a track HAHA,” said Alviar.

“This year’s team was absolutely amazing. We supported each other, and we grew such a strong connection with the teammates and coaches. I’m really proud of everyone, they did so well during our meets and improved so much. I can tell that everyone tried their best to get better meet after meet,” said sprinter Alexia Canales

(BVALs) Blossom Athletic Valley League and (CCS) Central Coast Section are also happening soon with BVALs happening on Thurs., May 2 at Westmont High School. CCS is spread out across three dates with CCS Top 8 happening Sat. April 13 at Leland High School; CCS Semi Finals, Sat., May 11 at Gilroy High School; and CCS Finals on Fri., May 17 at Gilroy High School.