Cardinals debut new track
Cardinals debut new track
The last time anyone can remember the Cardinals of Lindsay High School hosting a track meet was back in the 1980s — but even then the team needed to travel to Tulare just to use a venue for the meet.
The last time anyone can remember the Cardinals of Lindsay High School hosting a track meet was back in the 1980s — but even then the team needed to travel to Tulare just to use a venue for the meet.
Fast-forward to Wednesday afternoon and the Cardinals hosted their first East Sequoia League mini meet , and the school’s first ever meet at the Cardinals recently constructed track. The meet featured all six ESL schools including Strathmore, Granite Hills, Sierra Pacific, Corcoran and Woodlake. Results from the meet were not available as of press time.
Having the new ninelane all-weather track, along with a jumping pit and places for other field events; has been a huge help not only to the Cardinals as they develop as athletes, but also to their mindset by giving them the confidence and certainty that they are prepared to face the competition.
“It made me more confident because I know how it feels to be on actual track now, instead of on turf,” LHS senior Richie Hernandez said. “And I feel like, more comfortable, running against other people.”
Hernandez is one of the Cardinals top male athletes, competing in the 100-meter, 200-meter races as well as the 4x100 and 4x400 relays. He has set personal records in both the 100 — where he’s ranked ninth in the CIF Central Section — with a time of 11.10 seconds and the 200 with a time of 23.63. His 4x400 team’s 3:27.23 finish at last week’s West Coast Relay’s in Clovis ranks the team at sixth in the Valley as well.
“I’m truly impressed and proud of what the learners (students) have accomplished,” LHS head coach Orlando Benitez. “I’m not talking about their times or marks. I mean the mindset and culture of the team. If they keep this up, we have a bright future ahead of us.”
Prior to the new track — which was a two-year project that was in completed in June of 2017 — the Cardinals were practicing on a dirt track until five years ago when it was covered to install the all-weather turf for the football field at Frank Skadan Stadium leaving the Lindsay track and field team without much of a place to practice.
Long distance runners still had the roads to run but for other athletes, training took some an imagination and a bit of creativity. Without a curve on the football field, short-distance runners had to estimate their turns and distances while jumpers were left with just going through the motion. For hurdles, Hernandez said athletes sometimes had to use trash cans to jump.
Janelle Alfarro, a sophomore jumper, said that it took her five meets before she got used to jumping last season. Like Hernandez she too, felt more confident into meets after practicing at the track because she actually knew what to do.
“Last year we laid out a measuring tape on the football field and we would just run and jump,” Alfarro said. “We wouldn’t know what to do in our first meet. Not until like five meets later, did I actually get it down.”
Having a place to host a meet is a great, but for LHS athletic director Michael Langton, having a place for athletes to actually practice that is similar to where they would compete is also important.
“The key is that we’re able to now practice every single day on a track, in the same conditions that we would experience in a meet,” Langton said. “So that’s been vital to our success.”
With the new track the Cardinals were able to make pole vaulting, a sport senior Isidrio Espinoza had always wanted to try, available to their athletes. Espinoza, who had done long jump, triple jump and high jump last season, PR’D this season in both the high jump with 6-feet 4-inches and the triple jump with 34-1.5.
“I feel like it’s better because everyone can try a lot of new things and everyone’s getting better
at them because we actually get to practice on the right stuff,” Espinoza said. “I gained a lot of confidence, and well I think everyone has, because they actually practiced on the right things. It just gives you more confidence when you’re going into a meet because you actually know what to do and how to do it.”
The feeling of having a place not only call home, but also to truly practice and develop as athletes is not lost on the Cardinals. The amount of Cardinals fans in attendance — ranging from not only friends and families but also to other students as they trickled out of class — showed that the athletes will be well supported as they continue to strive for greatness in their new home.