By MARK MOLINA
Staff Writer
SANTA ROSA — The Lyford Bulldog track and field teams have not secured anything just yet, but they are sure off to a good start.
After the first day of the District 32-6A track and field meet at Santa Rosa High School, both the Lyford boys and girls find themselves leading the pack. The Lyford boys lead with 52 points, while the girls hold the top spot on their end with 46 points.
Wednesday consisted of the preliminary running events and some field events.
The boys and girls 3200-meter run was the only track event to go final, the rest will take place Friday at 1 p.m.
For the Lady Bulldogs, they hope Wednesday is a sign of things to come after having a solid showing in the both the field and running events.
“We did well in our field events and our girls who ran in the prelims qualified for finals, so we hope that will carry over to the final day,” said head girls coach Marissa Chapa. “We’re all more confident heading into Friday’s final day.”
Lyford’s Victoria Burns qualified for the Region IV-3A meet by taking first in the pole vault (8-06) and second in the long jump (15-01.25).
Teammate Adrianna Liserio placed second and also qualified for region.The top two finishers of each event move on to region.
On the boys end, Lyford hold a slim lead over hosting Santa Rosa, who is currently in second with 50 points, so head Lyford coach Doug Ames knows his team is going to have an equally productive Friday to walk out with another district title.
“It was a good day, but we have to come out and do our best on Friday,” Ames said. “We just have to go run our best. (Santa Rosa) is good, so we just have to go out there and run our best and the rest will take care of itself.”
Lyford’s Rodrigo Cedillo placed first in the boys 400-meter dash prelims with a time of 52.33, while teammate Davian Delgado placed second with a time of 53.46.
Meanwhile, Javier Gonzalez won gold in the boys shot put with a distance of 41-07.5.In the boys 3200-meter run, Lyford’s Ryan Sanchez used a late kick in the final 100 meters to take gold with a time of 11:06.02, passing Santa Rosa’s Donovan Olivarez (11:13.24).
Helping keep Santa Rosa close was Santa Rosa jumper Leo Lara, who easily won the high jump by clearing 6-00, ousting second place finisher Cayetano Vela (5-04) of Lyford.
Lara also ran a top-time of 22.83 in the 200-meter dash prelims, while Lyfords Cedillo followed with a 23.01.Santa Rosa, like the Lyford girls, qualified two in the pole vault after Mark Perez (11-06) and Roel Garza (10-00) placed first and second, respectively and qualified for the regional meet.
The meet continues Friday starting at 10 a.m. with the field events, while the running events are set to begin at 1 p.m.