Central Valley varsity track and field members Christian Balderas, Javier Cuevas Sanchez and Anusha Kumar traveled to Merced earlier this month to compete at the Sac-Joaquin Section Division-III meet.
Balderas finished 14th overall in the boys 3,200 race on May 9 at Golden Valley High School.
He completed the event in a career-best time of 10:00.25.
The top six placers advanced to Masters.
"I was confident in myself. If you don’t have that mentality, you can’t do what you want.”Christian Balderas
“I’m satisfied with my performance,” said Balderas, who is just a sophomore. “I ended the season strong. I set a PR by 4 seconds. I was confident in myself. If you don’t have that mentality, you can’t do what you want.”
Balderas enjoyed another productive season with the Hawks.
He shattered the school record in the 3,200 at the Stanislaus County Meet.
Balderas finished first in 10:07.76.
“It feels great,” said Balderas, who eclipsed Ben Saldana’s 2014 program-record time of 10:17.53. “It’s something I’ve worked for to earn. Last year as a freshman, I wanted it really bad. I was 6 seconds off.”
Balderas took third (10:06.36) at the 2019 Central California Conference Championships.
He placed fourth at the Pitman Distance Wars (10:38) and fifth at the County Clash IV (10:10.37).
He finished third in both the 1,600 (4:50.55) and 800 (2:15) at the Sierra-Tom Moore Relays. He set a personal record in the 800.
“I got good results,” he said. “But I wish I could have done better. I know I have more years to come. I want to be one of the best runners in the Sac-Joaquin Section. I’m going to train hard this summer. I want to break 10 minutes in the 3,200 the first race back.”
Cuevas Sanchez failed to clear the opening height in the pole vault on May 7.
Kumar finished 17th in the girls 100 hurdles (18.85).
