Less than one month into the 2017 season, the Sedona Red Rock High School track and field team has a number of athletes who have achieved provisional or automatic qualification to the Arizona Interscholastic Division IV state meet.
Thirteen individual girls and 12 boys have reached the standards set for Division IV, as well as the 4×100-meter relay on both sides.
“As a whole, things are going fine they really are,” head coach Harry Schneider said. “The young kids are starting to come along.”
Senior Hannah Ringel, two-time defending state champion in the shot put, has posted automatic distances in both shot put and discus. Ringel threw a career-long, and meet record, 40-10 in the shot put at the Northland Preparatory Academy Skydome Classic on March 7.
Junior Chenoa Crans is an automatic qualifier in the 300-meter hurdles with a 50.46-second finish at the 2nd Annual Small Schools Invite on March 4, and has provisional marks in the 100-meter hurdles and long jump.
Sophomore Abigail Stevenson is a provisional qualifier in the 100-meter dash while freshman Jackie King has done the same in the 200-meter dash. King has an automatic qualifying mark in the 100 hurdles at 17.40 and high jump, 4-08, too. Fellow freshman Krushi Bhakta reached a provisional time in the 400-meter run at the Small School Invite, a meet for schools in Divisions III and IV.
Each with 9-foot vaults in the pole vault, junior Julia Koss and senior Alexandra Hawes are automatic qualifiers; Koss is provisional in the high jump and Hawes provisional in triple jump. Junior Collier Trcic is provisional in both the long jump and triple jump.
Senior Sophia Perry, with a 4-08 mark, is an automatic qualifier in the high jump. Perry, Crans, Stevenson and freshman Naomi Thomson make up the relay team that owns a provisional time.
Schneider said that the entire team has been fighting sickness and early-season injuries, and those who recently joined from winter sports teams are just getting into shape.
Senior Joe Glomski has only participated in one meet this season, where he achieved three automatic qualifications, but also injured his hamstring. According to Schneider, Glomski will not return for another two weeks.
Additionally, many of the athletes do not train during spring break for one reason or another.
In particular for the girls, a long-distance group simply does not exist, due to the lack of a cross-country team.
Numbers are down this season in general; instead of having between 40 and 50 total athletes, the team has about 10 less than that.
On the boys side, senior Glomski leads the way with automatic marks in three events: Long jump [21-0], triple jump [42-10.5] and the 100 [11.32]. With 10-06 and 11-0 vaults, respectively, senior Luke Doerner and sophomore Drake Ortiz achieved automatic marks at the Small Schools Invite.
Senior Dawson Stevenson rounds out the automatic qualifiers representing the high jump with a 6-02 leap; freshman Dylan Beattie has a provisional mark in the event, too.
Junior Javier Pacheco has provisional times in the 100 and 200 in addition to the long jump. In the throwing events, senior Justin Aleman, junior Edgar Verdugo and senior Jake Christenson have provisional marks in the shot put. Christenson and senior Chas Rescigno have achieved the same in the discus.
Sophomore Forrest Hartley is among the provisional qualifiers in the pole vault.
Pacheco, Ortiz, Stevenson and junior Cole Edens make up the relay team that is a provisional qualifier.
Schneider hopes the team will be in full stride by its second home meet of the season on April 1.
The team looks to add to its list of representatives at the Tolleson Invitational on Saturday, March 18, before it makes its home debut at 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 22.
Scorpions Track and Field Schedule
Saturday, March 18, 8 a.m.
Tolleson Invitational
@ Tolleson High School
Wednesday, March 22, 2 p.m.
Friendship Invitational
@ Sedona Red Rock High School
Saturday, March 25, 9:30 a.m.
Chandler Saturday Rotary
@ Chandler High School
Tuesday, March 28, 4 p.m.
Arizona Lutheran Academy Invitational
@ Arizona Lutheran Academy
Saturday, April 1, 10 a.m.
Red Rock Invitational
@ Sedona Red Rock High School
