Page 9 - Sanger Herald 6-14-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018
Maria breaks 6, and it's a big deal
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Maria Lopez did not come in first in the 1,600 meter race.
But she was perhaps the biggest story of the event. Lopez, a senior, achieved her years-long objective at the County Metro Athletic Conference Championships on May 3. It was the final opportunity to do so before she graduated.
She ran the event in 5:59.12 minutes, which didn’t earn a top five finish. She was 10th. But she beat the 6 minute mark, her goal since she was a sophomore. And attaining it wasn’t easy. She battled through injuries in her junior year, excruciating shin splints. But this is the thing about these Sanger Apaches. They don’t give up.
Lopez isn’t the only one on the Apaches track and field team to break barriers this season. Mohamed Saleh’s 1:54.61 minutes in the 800 meters, which he ran at the Central Area Championships on May 9, was the second fastest 800 ever run for Sanger High, behind Louie Calderon’s blistering 1:51.46 in 1981, said running coach Sean Marzolf via email. Saleh’s time qualified him for the Valley championships as the No. 2 seed. The top three from that race will qualify to the state championships. And Saleh did.
Juan Desantiago also qualified for Valley in the 800, running a lifetime best 1:59.02, his second under the difficult-to-beat barrier of 2 minutes. And the boys and girls sprint medley relay teams obliterated school records at the Sanger Metric Classic on April 20.
In addition, Andee Poole continued to set records, placing first in the 100 meters at the Central Area
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Maria Lopez, right, worked hard her entire high school running career to beat the one barrier that stood in her way. And she did it on her last race.
Championships on May 9 with a personal and school record of 12.18 seconds.
Lopez said she maintained the pace of the pack of runners for the first two laps of her last race. And while they pulled ahead in the third, she banished any anxiety that could possibly affect her performance. She said stress disappeared. “Completely,” she said.
“It’s my last race,” she said, explaining what was going through her mind. “I’m going to go with it. I’m going to go with the flow.”
And it worked. “I felt everything work,” she said. “Arms strong, legs strong. I
had more fuel in me.” Lopez said in the past when she’s run with the pack, the fast pace quickly
wore her out.
But that’s the thing about
running. It’s not easy. And going fast is even more difficult. Pushed to its limits, a body will rebel.
Running coach Cat Waite said there’s a definite mental component to breaking barriers. “It’s definitely an emotional experience,” she said.
And Poole said she too was just feeling good, in contrast to the previous season where she wasn’t at her peak. And her swagger returned. All mental.
Apache 1,600 team topples Sanger relay record
Herald staff
At the California Interscholastic Federation Central Section Masters Meet on May 19 at Buchanan High, the Apaches’ track and field crew made an impression. In the boys four by 400 meter, or 1,600 meter, relay, the team of Trever Jones, Ivan Topete, Juan DeSantiago and Mohamed Saleh recorded a fifth place with a time of 3:23.28 minutes.
Clovis North’s team got first with 3:20.49, Buchanan second and Liberty of Bakersfield third. But what Sanger did was epic. The runners had been
Waite hugged Lopez after her race. “She’s been so close every race,” Waite said. “She cares. She really cares. She was stuck in a rut for a while but finally broke through, ending with a bang.”
Lopez said at the end of the second lap when she saw the pack pull ahead, she kept up. They didn’t leave her behind. Much. “It was all in the mind,” she said. “And I said to myself, ‘Oh no, I can’t let them get away.’ I tried my best.”
Lopez said she got 6 minutes flat in her sophomore year but was unable for whatever reason to beat that time.
In that last race, Kennedy Jennings, an Edison freshman, got first with 5:17.95. Kaley Cardenas, a Sanger freshman phenom, was the top local finisher at No. 4 with 5:29.29. And Jennifer Recinos, Lopez’s running partner and close friend, placed eighth with 5:50.79.
Recinos acted ecstatic with Lopez’s time because she knew the significance. Her time was a personal record, too.
And Recinos said she knew Lopez was close to beating her time. “During the race, I told her, “Come on. Come on,’” she said. “She started really strong.”
The two train together. “She’s my running buddy in cross country,” Recinos said. “She was the one pushing me.”
Lopez said she plans to continue running and participate in 10 kilometer races and half marathons. She plans to attend Fresno State in the fall and major in business with an emphasis in marketing. “I want to see how everything works,” she said. “And start my own business.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.
Sanger High School softball players Ashley Mata (No. 11) and Stephanie Herring graduated from Reedley College May 18. They had just finished beating Hanford 9-8 in a playoff softball game and had to rush to our commencement ceremony. "I asked them to give me the 'Superman' pose, and it turned out great," said George Takata, college spokesman.
George Takata photo
itching to beat the Sanger High record set in 1992 by M. Potter, R. Payne, N. Hernandez and A. White.
In fact, Jones vowed to accomplish the feat in a May 10 story in the Sanger
Herald. And he was right. His team shaved off more than three-tenths of a second. And Andee Poole obliterated the 100 meter girls record 12.4 seconds set in 1994 by Maruceka
Begrete with a 12.19 seconds. She also placed fifth. Aaliyah Wilson of Stockdale grabbed first in Poole’s event with 11.55 seconds.
The Apache four by 400 meter relay team of Mohamed Saleh, from left, Juan DeSantiago, Trever Jones and Ivan Topete toppled a school record from 1992.
Brian Penner photo
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