With the end of the school year approaching, the boys’ varsity track team competes in its final races, qualifying some runners for CIF individuals. The team has performed well throughout the season, and some of the varsity runners have been able to qualify for CIF. The final cut off was made after their most recent meet at AV high school, where some varsity runners beat their best times on record.

Although some of the varsity runners were able to qualify for the CIF, many of the runners felt that they were unable to perform to their best potential. Varsity runner Jeremy Telezing attributed his lackluster performance to the track course and unfavorable weather. He stated, “Personally, I did not do too well in the 1600 meter race. I was behind one place, or I would have qualified for finals, but that was primarily due to the track. The track surface was very rough in comparison to normal tracks so it felt like running on concrete. The weather was also pretty bad. It was almost 90 degrees and that slowed me down a lot. A good thing is that I am moving on in the 800-meter race because I placed in top nine out of all the racers in the valley.”

Although some runners felt they could perform better, the majority of the athletes were pleased with the team’s performance overall. Lauro Vargas, another varsity runner, stated, “There are the individual races so some of the people did good and some did not. Unfortunately, I was unable to race because of my torn Achilles, but I came out to watch. Overall, I would say Quartz Hill did pretty good, some of our runners even qualified for individuals, which is great.”

Quartz Hill had four runners that were able to qualify for the CIF individuals as opposed to Highland’s three runners. One of the runners that qualified was Derek Rodriguez. He stated, “I was able to qualify for the 1600 meter race as well as the 800-meter race, but I really felt I could have done better if the track was nicer and more maintained. The track at AV High School was visibly damaged and it was really rough [to sprint on it].”

Hopefully, Rodriguez and the rest of our runners are able to keep their strong momentum into the CIF individuals!