The Sedona Red Rock High School varsity track and field team sent 12 student-athletes to compete at the Division 5 State Championship on May 9 and 10 at Red Mountain High School in Mesa.
The boys’ 4×400-meter relay team of Ramon Betancourt, Chokyi Carstens, Keldon Cain and Ariel Bustos went into the meet ranked 11th in the state and set a new school record of 3:33.75 on May 9 to advance to the finals. The record was short-lived, as the team set a new best of 3:32.09 in the finals for a fourth-place finish.
“I love to see four of our teammates up on that podium,” Head Coach Sean Eicher said previously.
“For schools this size for relays to do anything is really rare,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., told the school board on May 13. “We’ll have the occasional individual [athlete] stand out … but to be able to put four athletes together to score so high is really impressive.”
Eicher said it was a point of pride for him, as building relay teams in the program is his long-term goal.
“Speaking of that individual achievement, Ramon Betancourt placed second in the 400-meter,” Swaninger said. “It’s the second year in a row that he got second … But he got touched out by seven one-thousandths of a second. So quite an accomplishment. I ran into this young man at the gym the other day, and he said, ‘Dr. Swaninger, pretty much all I do is school work and work out,’ and it shows in his achievement.”
Betancourt also placed seventh overall in the 200-meter run with a time of 23.52 seconds. During the meeting, school board member Sam Blom also noted that Betancourt started on the varsity soccer team all four years of high school.
“Pole vaulters Ari Tedrick and Khyrstian Cordova both showed marked improvement over the season, each increasing their best height by two feet,” Eicher wrote in a press release. “Cordova tied his personal best by clearing 12 feet at the state meet, earning a sixth-place finish. Tedrick had a consistently strong season, placing in the top four at every meet. At state, he also cleared 12 feet — just shy of a new personal record — finishing fifth overall.”
Sophomore Avery Raczynski qualified for the finals in the 200- and 400-meter sprints and clocked a personal best time of 1:05.22 in her second 400-meter race of the season, increasing her state ranking from 24th to 15th. In the 200 meters, she finished at 28.59 seconds, giving her 20th place in the state with a time just shy of her personal record of 28.56 seconds, which she set on April 23 during the Yavapai County Championships.
“Aubree Doyle narrowly qualified for the state championship in the 800-meter run, entering the competition ranked 24th overall,” Eicher wrote. “Determined to improve, she dedicated the two weeks leading up to the meet to an intense and focused training regimen, motivated by two clear goals: To run faster and to place higher. Her hard work paid off — at the state meet, she delivered a remarkable performance, finishing 14th and setting a new personal best of 2:35.23. This time shaved an impressive five seconds off her previous record, marking a significant milestone in her athletic development.”
