Coming off the school’s spring break, the Orestimba High track and field team didn’t miss a beat with six first-place finishes in the Hughson Vintage Invitational on Saturday.
Unlike most meets, the team approached this meet differently To make sure most of the usual participants are rested for future meets, head coach Charlie Kothenbeutel made the decision to have them sit out. This led to some of the veteran athletes such as seniors Marian Quevedo and Giovanni Cerna not participating, and underclassmen athletes showcasing their skills through various events.
“You want to make sure your athletes are still healthy before the home stretch, so that’s not really a need to compete in every single thing,” Kothenbeutel said. “So instead, you focus on the younger [athletes] to be able to get out there and compete.”
Sophomore Brett Gray and freshman Cade Carmona each won two events in their respective competitions. Gray jumped a new personal best at 40 feet, 10 inches to win the boys freshman and sophomore triple jump. He now holds the program’s fourth-best jump in the event.
He followed that performance with another top placement finish in the boys freshman and sophomore long jump with a 19-foot-8.5-inch leap, a new personal best.
Kothenbeutel praised Gray’s dedication to improving as a jumper, saying that he’s a “student of technique.” He added that the sophomore athlete knew it was going to take some time for the results to show.
“He really, really wants to maximize his potential, and we kind of saw that,” he said. “Within the last month or so, he’s really been seeing all the [techniques] that he’s been putting into, and the preparation and hard work really start to pay off.”
Carmona sprinted a time of 2 minutes, 37.07 seconds for first place in the girls freshman and sophomore 800-meter dash. She carried her momentum in the 1-mile race with another top placement finish after clocking in 5:57.32. The freshman now holds the program’s fastest time in the 1-mile dash, surpassing junior Samantha De La Cruz’s time of 6:04.20 set at the same meet in 2024.
The Warriors continued their success in 1-mile dash after freshman Benjamin Cerna won his race with a personal-best time of 4:57.68. His time is now the second-fastest time in the event for the program.
In the boys freshmen and sophomore 800-meter run, sophomore Emmanuel Garabito recorded a time of 2:14.39 to win the event, which was 1.62 seconds faster than runner-up freshman Carmelo Rodriguez of Ripon High. Benjamin Cerna ended up in fourth place with a time of 2:17.12 in the event.
Additionally, Orestimba had top-three finishes in two events. Garabito finished in second place in the boys 2-mile race, clocking 10:32.73. In his only event, sophomore Israel Ramirez ran a time of 15.07 seconds in the boys varsity 300-meter hurdles for a third-place finish.
The team will travel back to Hughson on Wednesday for a Trans-Valley League dual-meet. The first event will begin at 3 p.m.
