The track season has crossed the finish line.
On the May 16 and 18, Bear Rivers track team and competing elite athletes went to track sections, held at Stanislaus State, Turlock, to finish the track season off strong.
Grace Billingsley, a freshman, talked about the sections.
“The sectionals are basically a way for the more elite athletes to have a chance to go compete,” said Billingsley. “So if you make it past Pioneer Valley League, the trials and finals, then you get a chance to compete in sections which is all of the division 4 and 5 schools Bear River gets to compete against down in Stanislaus, it’s the top 4 athletes from each league who compete against each other.”
Bruins explained how they did in Sections.
“I competed in the 300 meter low hurdles and the 400 relay,” said Billingsley. “The 400 meter relay we got in the top 8 spots so we qualified for the finals and for the 300 meter hurdles I did not qualify for the finals because I got the 9th spot. I made it to section finals.”
“My track season was pretty good,” said Logan Lewis, a senior. “I did pretty well, I took first a couple times in discus, maybe once or twice in shot put… I did make it to sections, I didn’t do too well.”
“It was really fun and a good atmosphere,” said Eleni Ruocco-Brown, a junior. “I did pretty good for it being my first year, I made it for high jump and then made it to masters. It was my first year for high jump so it felt pretty good making it to sectionals because that’s probably my best event.”
Bruins also went over issues for the season and at sections.
“My biggest struggle throughout the year would be practicing,” said Ruocco-Brown. “We had a lot of bad weather which made practicing hard because we weren’t able to practice as much. I feel like this made it so we didn’t get to prepare as much for stamina and running the four hundred.”
“The ring was very slippery so I basically just fell a lot,” said Lewis. “… I guess it did go pretty well because I did end up getting better. I do believe this has been my best track season so far. I’m not happy how my year ended because of the slipping in the ring.”
Head coach Scott Savoie praised how the team competed throughout the season.
“I think the season went very well,” said Coach Savoie. “We had a great group of kids out for Track & Field this year and some very talented ones as well.”
Coach Savoie was extremely proud of his athletes and how they competed against other, bigger, schools.
“As a team, it’s hard to compete with schools that are over double our size because of sheer numbers, but I think our kids proved that individually, we have athletes that can compete with anyone, ” he said.
