Downey boys compete in indoor meet

DOWNEY - Downey High School was well represented at the California Indoor State Invitational track and field meet, held President's Day at the Save Mart Center in Fresno.A talented group of Downey High track athletes elected to train earlier in the track and field season in order to compete effectively this year at the state indoors meet. The indoor track season precedes the outdoor track season which typically doesn't begin until early March. The boys competed in the high jump, 800m and 4x400m relay. The relay team consisted of Ismael Guerrero, Anthony Bravo, Fabian Mendoza and Eric Enriquez. The high jumper was Joseph Carter. Enriquez also ran the 800m race. The boys had to qualify at sanctioned meets leading up to the indoor meet. Senior Joseph Carter was seeded No. 1 going into the meet, having cleared a qualifying height of 6 ft. 9 inches, the best high school mark in the state thus far this year. Carter jumped a height of 6 ft. 3 inches at the meet and tied for first place along with three other competitors. Senior Eric Enriquez was seeded No. 2 after running a time of 1:57:80 on Feb. 9 at a qualifying meet at Paramount High. At the indoor meet, Enriquez ran a strong race and put on a charge at the end of the 5 1/2 laps to catch Arcadia's Phillip Rocha, who had edged Enriquez at the qualifying meet. Enriquez finished second with a time of 1:59:67 (the meet record was 1:57:52), just behind leader Ivan Gonzalez out of Sacramento who ran 1:59:05. The boys 400m relay consisted of five heats with a maximum of four teams per heat. Downey boys were seeded No. 5 and were competing against traditionally powerhouse teams, including Los Osos, Carter, Great Oaks, Dana Hill and Arcadia. Downey ran a solid race and won their heat comfortably in a time of 3:33:10. They finished second overall behind Sheldon, a team out of Sacramento. Coach Carillo, who drove the boys to Fresno, said Downey "had a solid effort all around" and looked forward to seeing the boys make an impact at CIF prelims later this year.

********** Published: February 28, 2013 - Volume 11 - Issue 46