Beads of sweat roll off her forehead as she takes her mark. She looks quickly into the screaming stadium, and focuses on the track ahead of her. “On your mark, get set? BANG!” Katie Ettner, ’05, shoots forward in an effort to get a lead on the opposing teams.

As the track and field season comes to an end, six students prepared to compete in the Sierra/Sequoia Championships in Coalinga on May 15. Along with Ettner, Michelle Nachtigall, ?04, Mona Yazdanpanah, ?05, Gina Arabia, ?03, Rosie Walker, ’06, and Jesse Madsen, ?05, battled for medals in the final meet of the year.

“I’m sad that track is ending,” Walker said. “It’s been an awesome experience, and I feel that I’ve increased my performance since the beginning of the year. I’m definitely going to go out for track again next year.”

This season, the girls came in second in the West Sierra League, but the boys fell short of prior expectations. While coach Eric Lee Gilmore worked them hard, their egos became inflated by all the encouragement.

“At the end of last year, Gilmore had high hopes for the boys’ team and not many expectations for the girls’ team,” Ettner said. “But our girls worked really hard this season, and we proved that we could beat the larger schools. Unfortunately (gasp), the guys fell short of Gilmore’s expectations and did not place.”

Ettner, Yazdanpanah, Nachtigall, and Arabia, placed second in the 4x100m relay at the Sierra/Sequoia Championships in Coalinga on May 15. Walker placed sixth in the100m hurdles and Nachtigall placed fifth in the 300m, Madsen improved his time in the 300m hurdles from and Ettner placed seventh in the triple jump. The girls’ team finished 9th overall.

“It felt so good to hear that I placed in the meet,” Walker said. “Even though I placed sixth, I didn’t care because I had fun.”

Though the team will not be competing in the Valley Championships, they felt as though they have accomplished much more than they had hoped for after their loss of team members.

“This year was a rebuilding year for us,” Yazdanpanah said. “It was hard for the whole team when a lot of the members from last year didn’t come back out this year. But I think that we did well considering this loss.”

For more information about track, call the high school office at 297-9464, ext. 126.