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By Lucretia Garland
By Lucretia Garland
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The Tigers were feeling the spirit of racing on March 28. The runners are all in a state conference.
Long jumper Kevin Rodgers has become first in state, leaping 24 feet 10 inches. “It’s a great season,” Rodgers said. “I couldn’t expect anything better.” Kevin has been running since the eighth grade, so he understands the process of practice.
Samuel Jeter, one of the other runners who are first in state, participates in the 400-meter hurdles. “I’m getting progressively better”, Jeter said, “I am a very committed, driven person that strives to be the best.” Jeter continued his domination in the hurdles by grabbing the time of 55.17 seconds and won the event.
Tory Younger is also a hurdler. His best hurdling time in the 400-meter run was 61.9 seconds. “Today, I want to beat that,” Younger said. He has suffered minor knee injuries in the beginning of the season. “It’s cool. Everything is pretty good now.”
D’Juan Lee has been running for about five years. “The season is not as good as I want, but I will finish strong,” Lee said. “I’ve been running for too long, it’s time to give me mine.”
Andre Eugene Ewell is said to be the fastest 100-meter runner on the track, besides Coach Smith. “The season started off rough, but everything is cool now” Ewell said. His best time is 10.5 seconds in the 100. He has also had a minor injury to his foot.
Hurdler Anthony Anderson has been running since his sophomore year in high school. “I had minor shin splints but no major injuries,” Anderson said. “Everything is going nice. We have good athletes, come to the track meet and support us. We’re going to win state!”
Geron Craig said that the season started off painful for him. He spent the first two weeks off, trying to settle back in. He runs the 400, 800-meter, 1500-meter, and the 1600-meter relay. His best time was 1 minute, 55 seconds in the 800.
“I’m placing pretty well,” Craig said.
Don Danns ran his fastest time of the season, and now is ranked seventh in southern California in the 100. His time was 10.86 seconds.
Aaron Strauther has had a severe injury to his leg, pulling a quad. He loves track, but wants to play for the basketball team next year.
Freshman Juan Ruiz is one of the top 5 in southern California in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs. Taking Calculus 1B and English 1B, Ruiz maintains a 3.9 grade point average, so track is not causing him to lose concentration. “I haven’t had any injuries, it’s just exhausting.”
RCC also has a great women’s track and field team which competed the same day.
“The season was good, but it could be and will be better.” said distance runner Johanna Montes. She as well as some of her team mates have endured shin splints. “We have a really small distance team, but we all are very talented.” Montes said. According to Montes, the team is expecting a great cross country season next year.
Casey Glassey had a time of 40:49 the 10,000 meter distance event, in which she only ran once. Her season had a rough start. “I was sick a lot,” she said.
The women on the team have trained long and hard all season. “We have a pretty well-rounded team. ” Glassey said.
Running since her sophomore year in high school, Briana “Breezy” Gara gives the whole team credit.
“Everyone on the team works so hard and the RCC students should come and support us because it’s paying off” Gara said.
She finished with times of 2:22 in the 800 and 5:40 in the 1,500.
Arianna Celis started well and has improved a lot. She urged RCC students to come and participate. “We can use a lot of distance girls,” she said. The team has asked that RCC students show their pride and attend their next event.