State Track Results
Lake County High School sent 6 athletes to the State Track & Field Meet in Denver last week. The meet, originally scheduled for May 18-20, was postponed to Saturday and Sunday because of the cold and snow that came through on Thursday and Friday. The pleasant weekend weather provided opportunity for fast times and strong performances.
The Panthers’ first event of the meet was the 4×200 meter relay. The team of Jordan Chavez, German Aguirre, Angel Martinez and Cesar Hernandez had not yet run the race all together because of Hernandez’ injury and Chavez’ late arrival to the team. They entered the meet in 10th place. Since the meet had to be condensed down to 2 days, there were no prelims; every event was a final. As the 10th place seed, Lake County had to run in the slower heat. They dominated that heat and posted a season best time of 1 minute 32.93 seconds, missing their school record by 3 tenths of a second. They also beat most of the teams in the faster heat and ended up finishing in 3rd place overall!
Martinez and Aguirre had to head immediately to the triple jump. Jumping on tired legs, they weren’t able to accomplish personal bests. Aguirre’s best jump of the day didn’t count because he scratched by a minimal amount. His best legal jump was 39’ 0.5,” which placed him 14th. Martinez improved with each attempt, ending with a mark of 38’ 1.5.” He took 17th overall.
At the same time, Nate Main competed in the discus. Despite a couple of fouls, he threw 121’ 11.” Although that mark was short of his personal best, he still took 15th place and proved that he is one of the top 2A discus throwers in the state.
Later Saturday afternoon, Hernandez and Martinez raced the 200 meter dash. Hernandez earned his first individual medal by finishing 8th in a time of 23.37. Martinez ran in the slower heat, turning in a time of 24.25 seconds and placing 17th.
Hernandez performed even better in the 100m dash on Sunday. He set a personal best of 11.49 to earn a 6th place medal.
The final event for Lake County was the 4x100m relay. Eduardo Jimenez led off for the team, which also included Chavez, Martinez and Hernandez. The Panthers entered the event in 12th place, once again putting them in the slower heat. They dropped 7 tenths of a second off their season best time to reach 45.15 and finished 2nd in their heat. Once the 2 heats were combined, they ended up 5th.
In the overall team competition, Lake County tied for 16th place.
This medal haul was the largest in the 13 years under Coach Amy Peters. Hernandez, with his 4 medals, was the first Panther to bring home more than 2 medals from a state meet in many years. Chavez, who was a significant addition to the relays and probably bumped the team up a few positions in the final standings, was chosen as Panther of the Meet.
Unfortunately, 4 of the 6 state qualifiers are seniors and will be moving on to new endeavors. Only Aguirre and Jimenez, currently juniors, will return to lead next year’s team. 
