Coaches: Jake Holloway (head coach, sprints and jumps), Hannah Batchelor (distance), Ashley Bordy (assistant distance), Andrew Guevara (hurdles), Ricky Holloway (throws), Gideon Pichardo (assistant distance), Sergio Silva (assistant sprints)
Top Returners (boys): Ting Hin Chan (11), Nathaniel Covarrubias (12), Aaron Green (11), Josef Hudak (10), Mohamad Ibrahim (12), Charles Kearney (12), Ronin Nguyen (11), Kaz Nomura (12)
Top Returners (girls): Krystal Barajas (12), Eniko Barta (10), AJ Dorris (11), Kaila Ego (10), Mia Gonzales (11), Moselle Mohammad (12), Hannah Oh (10), Madelyn Sooter (10)
Top Newcomers (boys): Jadon Ho (9), Matthew Lee (10), Aaron Yoo (9)
Top Newcomers (girls): Evelyn Delgado (9), Kaitlyn Nguyen (12)
Last Season: The boys finished third in the Freeway League with a 2-2 record, but no one qualified for the CIF-SS preliminary round. The Lady Lancers also ended in third with the same record as the boys.
One highlight was Sooter breaking the school’s 200-meter record and winning the 400-meter run. The then-freshman qualified for the preliminary round of CIF-SS along with then-senior Esther Kim before falling short of the finals.
Outlook: With the Freeway League disbanded, both squads look to place first or second in the Century Conference’s North Hills League, Holloway said.
The boys and girls are already familiar with two of the four schools they will compete against since they also came from the Freeway League: Sonora and La Habra. The new faces will hail from El Modena in Orange and Foothill in Tustin.
Holloway said after stepping down from his cross-country head coach position at the end of last school year, he’s had more time to focus on helping his athletes reach the goal of a higher placement in the inaugural North Hills League.
“We’d like to get at least a couple CIF qualifiers on both sides and one relay team on both sides,” he said. “That would be my minimum goal.”
The head coach also expects an improved season because of the extra time his athletes had to practice last semester.
“This is the first year since I’ve been here that we’ve had a track class all year round,” the head coach said. “We’ve had some students practicing track since August; that hopefully will make a big difference in terms of preparation.”
Holloway said Foothill will be the Lancers and Lady Lancers’ toughest opponent.
“[It’s] unfamiliarity,” the head coach said. “We haven’t seen them much in track and field or other sports.”
Boys jumps leader Ibrahim, who competes in long, triple and high jumps, said he has similar aspirations.
“I’m feeling confident, and I’m sure that our team feels the same way,” he said. “We have been working hard to better ourselves every day, and we are hoping to start our season strong and hopefully make CIF.”
Additionally, Ibrahim said he likes the new league as it provides stronger teams to face off against.
“[This] gives us a bigger chance to prove ourselves as a team,” he said.
Boys sprints co-leader Hudak, who competes in the 100- and 200-meter dash as well as the 4-by-100-meter relay, also aims for CIF and said the extra training time has helped the team.
“Last year, I joined right at the start of the season, so I didn’t have time to develop my techniques or a lot of strength, but now this whole off-season, it’s been a lot of strength training and speed work,” he said. “So we’ve really been able to develop ourselves as runners and sprinters.”
Another thing Holloway said he wanted to emphasize is more weight room exercises; in a typical week of 5-6 days of practice, the team spends two days lifting, working on cleans, split jerks, bench presses and squats.
“For shorter distance events or for jumping and even for throwing, strength and power are just as big a factor as running ability,” Holloway said. “The best way to get better at sprinting and jumping is sprinting and jumping; the next way is through the weight room.”
Barta, who mainly competes in long and triple jumps, said she’s noticed the effects of Holloway’s workout mentality.
“I honestly do think it’s been helpful,” the 4-by-100-meter relay and 400-meter dash runner said. “I feel like it’s just helping me get stronger overall.”
Since the start of the year, Holloway said some athletes have been competing individually in all-comers meets every other weekend to get preseason practice.
“We wouldn’t [usually] actually start running any officially timed meets against other competition ‘til later in February,” he said. “The extra practice in competitions really helps.”
During non-league meets, returner Sooter has ensured she would not undergo a sophomore slump after her breakout season last year. The sophomore set the school record in her debut year and broke it again at the Jim Thompson Fullerton City meet on Saturday, March 1, with a time of 26.51 seconds.
“With this newfound motivation through a new confidence, it then pushes me to achieve other goals that I have, such as breaking the 400m record, 100m record, as well as the 200m record again,” Sooter said. “I believe that as a team, our goal is ultimately to place first overall as a school among the other new competitors in the league while also striving to do our best and adjust to it.”
Sooter, who competes in high jump, 100-, 200- and 400-meter races as well as the 4-by-100- and 4-by-400-meter relays, said creating a good team environment is important.
“[We are] cheering each other on at meets, encouraging teammates to continue working hard in their efforts, and finally this year we have also started giving more high-fives to each other, throughout practice and especially during warmups,” said the sophomore, who is also captain of the girls squad. “I think this is an incredible start to strengthening our bonds with each other.”
The track and field teams will compete in their first league meet on Thursday, March. 27, at 3:30 p.m. at Buena Park High School stadium against El Modena, whose boys are currently 0-1 and girls 1-0.
