Frosh Soph!
Hello nighthawk families and fans,
First we ask that you vote for our very own Paige Echsner for Athlete of the year! Over the weekend we hosted the annual Dick-Wilkins Frosh Soph Championships. We would like to first send a HUGE thank you to all of the parent volunteers who made this meet possible as well as our athletes who worked their shifts and helped all around the meet, many of who opted to stay far beyond their required shift to help out! Find podium pictures here and the full meet results here. Keep reading for more highlights.
Pictured, Freshman girls 4×100: Madelyn Do, Eva Finns, Coach Stephen, Averie Gross and Samantha Tseng
Athletes of the Meet -
We want to take the time to highlight a couple of athletes who had spectacular performances at our last meet.
Hurdles -
Tea Pidding (10) qualified for Frosh/Soph after just two hurdle races ever and set a big PR in the 100 hurdles shaving almost a full second off of her previous best!
Maxwell Chang (10) coming off of a fresh 300 hurdle PR last week, sets another by almost a full second!
Sprints -
Lauren Holmes (10) competed in 4 events at frosh soph, medaling in 3 of them and setting a lifetime best in the 100m at 12.79
Throws -
Jacob Zierolf (10) set a new PR in discus which places him as the 2nd highest mark for Sophomores in school history!
Distance -
Asher Sikma (9) had a breakout day at the Frosh/Soph Championships this last weekend. He ran with the best freshman in San Diego and proved he belonged by running a 4:39 in the 1600 and a 10:03 in the 3200. Both marks are top 3 times by a freshman in Del Norte history.
Nolan Hightower (10) had a great day at the Frosh/Soph Championships this last weekend. He ran a PR of 4:31 in the 1600 and a time of 9:46 in the 3200 which places him as the fastest sophomore in Del Norte history in that event.
Eliza Hong (10) had her best day this season where she had SB in both the 1600 and 800. As well as closing her night out with a 62 second split in her 4x4 relay. She competed against the best sophomores in San Diego and proved why she’s one of them.
Olivia Bartolay (9) continued to showcase her talents on Saturday. She ran a PR of 5:20 in the 1600 and came back later that evening in the 3200 where she led wire to wire and ended up being the freshman champion.
Congratulations to all of those athletes on a great meet. We would like to take the time to recognize those athletes whose performance landed them onto our top 10 all-time lists. Because they did not have a wind-gauge at this meet, our sprinters and jumpers performances cannot be counted towards school records and all-time performances. We know they have it in them and will be able to even surpass these marks in future competitions!
Brennan Ojeda (10) - Boys Pole Vault: Tied for 6th All-Time with a vault of 14'
Each of these athletes have made a significant impact on our program, making themselves known as some of the best in their event since our school opened in 2009. We look forward to witnessing their continued success as the season goes on.
Meet Coach Wilkins
Our frosh/soph championships is named after Dick Wilkins who coached out program’s founding head coach (Coach Chris Ruff). He named this meet after him when he started it and it has honored ever since! We are grateful for the impact both of these guys have made on the track community and had the honor of both of them being in attendance on Saturday. Chris Ruff still times all of our home meets!
Our Next Meet:
This week we have just one meet on Thursday AWAY at Rancho Bernardo High School. This is our last meet of the regular season and will be the decider of who wins the Palomar League Championship team title for 2025.
Uniform return for all athletes who do not qualify on to next week’s meet will be Monday May 5th at the start of practice. Each athlete must return their own uniform on Monday or they will be fined by the school.
Pictured: Coach Dick Wilkins and Coach Chris Ruff
House Keeping
I am asking for a $250 parent donation to help offset our team costs. As always Athlete's are not required to "pay to play", however, this $250 donation would help cover essential program costs. If you are able to donate you can do so in a variety of ways.
Via Venmo using @DNHSATHLETICFOUNDATION - Please put "Track & Field" and your athletes name in the comments
Via Sports Engine HERE
Via Check - Please make the check payable to the Del Norte Athletic Foundation and put track and field and your athletes name in the memo. Checks must be given to my parent liaison Jim Echsner.
Be sure you are following us on Instagram! We share meet photos, meet recap reels, live updates and more there. @DelNorte_xctf
Calling all DNHS T+F Alumni, fill out this form to be included on our alumni page!
Donate your used spikes to a Nighthawk in need!
If your athlete has spikes from last season that aren’t super torn up, they can use them again. If they are getting new spikes and don’t need their old ones, feel free to bring them to practice and we can share them with another nighthawk in need! Once your athlete gets their spikes, have them show their coach before wearing them at practice. We can help navigate each athletes needs.