It should be an interesting high school track season for Dos Palos, Firebaugh, and the rest of the Westside.
The Dos Palos Broncos continue their upsurge as more boys and girls come out for the sport (thanks in part to the addition of cross county three years ago), which started earlier this month with a West Sierra League meet in Dos Palos.
Bronco head track coach Eddy Gibb, himself a former high school and college distance runner, said that he had about 60 athletes participate in the inaugural WSL meet.
“We ended up sitting some of our top athletes due to injury during the meet, which affected the scoring” said Gibb, now in his sixth year of coaching. “We did better for the second meet, but we were still missing a couple of our top athletes due to injuries who we expect to be back by the end of the season.”
Dos Palos ended up in third place at the second WSL meet, which took place in Firebaugh at Josh Allen Stadium, and Gibb commented that the Eagles have the best team thus far.
Right now, the focus for the Broncos is to get everyone healthy and compete in various events to pile up those all-important points.
“The sprinters are putting in a lot of hard work and will continue to improve,” the coach added. “We also expect our jumpers and hurdlers to continue to improve over the season as we try to have more students score in more events. We have added a few key pieces these past few weeks, and we are training them in their respective events. We have the talent to finish first in league again, and we will continue to put in the hard work to excel.”
The goal of every track and field athlete is to stand on the podium at the California State Championships, which will be held in late May in Clovis. Dos Palos has two such athletes in seniors Jesus Bon and Esteban Hernandez.
Bon now holds the school record for the fastest time in the 100m, 200m, 400m, and the 300m hurdles. Hernandez has thrown a personal best of 163’7” in the discus at the Junior Olympics qualifiers last year.
“Both Jesus and Esteban have excellent shots at podium finishes at the state championships,” said Gibb.
Also to be looked at in the sprints are Andre Flores, Julian Riley, and Bryce Goodman. Arturo Mendoza, Xavian Ortiz-Flores, and Emmaneul Contreras are also some of the top 400m runners as well as the 4x400m relay team.
The distance runners include Andrew San Roman, Angel Mora, Javier Bravo, Ely Goncalves and Isaiah Romero, who also competes in the long jump and triple jump.
For the Bronco girls, Kahliah Soares (shot put), Shyanne Bryant (800 m) and Neveah Rivera (shot put and discus) will lead the Bronco girls.
With about 75 participants this year, the Broncos also feature a coaching staff both veteran and new. Returning to coach are Rob Calvert (girls), Vincent Oglesby (sprinters) and Aaron Sandoval (throwing). Joining this year are Nicholas Magdaleno (high jump) and Jared Jones (sprinters and relays).
“I am looking forward to the rest of the season and to the state championships at the end of the year,” said Gibb. “It’s been a privilege to coach this team.”
