Photo by Andrew Brown ’18 – Braden Elis ’19 pole vaults at Brophy Sports Complex after school, Monday, April 11. Many freshman have steppe up this year to fill the gap in varsity that was left by last year’s seniors.
By Kaleb Lucero ’18
THE ROUNDUP
This season, the track team has won the March 2 home meet and the March 5 Rattler Booster Invite.
They placed third at the March 10 AMDG Invitational with records by the freshmen 4×400 relay at the March 26th Desert Vista Invitational, and the March 23rd Fr. Harry “Dutch” Olivier Invitational.
“I think the season has been going really well for the team as a whole,” said Cole Yandell ’17. “We have had our individuals and relays perform very well so far in our meets and invitationals, so I am excited as we look forward to big upcoming meets like Arcadia and State.”
Head Coach Mr. Bill Kalkman said they are continuing with a lot of tradition that has been successful with track and field in previous years.
Both Mr. Kalkman and Joshua Benjamin ’16 said that long distance has stood out this year.
“Our strongest area is our long distance runners,” Mr. Kalkman said. “Luke Mason (’17), Hociel Landa (’17) and Drew Burns (’18) are three of the top two milers in the whole state of Arizona. [They have been] one of the highlights in performances so far.”
However, both Yandell and Benjamin said that this season is different because some of their top athletes from last year have graduated.
“I think a big difference this season is that everyone has had to step it up a little bit to make up for some big lost talent in the last couple of years,” Yandell said.
Joshua Benjamin said that one of their big losses was Isaiah Oliver ’15, who was one of the best in all of his events.
“This year, it’s going to rely on everyone’s contribution rather than one person scoring points,” he said.
However, making up for this loss are some talented new freshmen runners who are on varsity this season.
“We have an outstanding freshmen class with track and field,” Mr. Kalkman said. “We have Izak Wall (’19), Elisha Brooks (’19), John Anthony Gonzales (’19) and Charles Gbekia (’19) who already set the freshman school record in the 4×400 meter relay.”
The team is also training for the last couple competitions of the season, and met over spring break for practice, working on relay exchanges to prepare for the Arcadia competition.
At the April 9 Arcadia Invitational, Burns set a new Brophy school record for the two-mile run with the time of 9:27.20.
Juniors Landa and Mason had times of 9:17 and 9:22, respectively, for the two-mile.
“I think we have shown improvement as a team at every competition, so I am hopeful that going forward into some big meets at the end of the year we can really reach our full potential,” Yandell said.
