Story by Ray Conner
It was another strong finish against worthy competitors for the Kern Valley girls track squad.
The Lady Broncs traveled to Liberty High School in Bakersfield to compete at the Kern Invitational on March 8.
Kern Valley finished fifth in the 24-team field. Along the way two school records fell and 16 PR’s were accomplished.
The two athletes that set new school records were Aspen Hacker and Jayda Bushling.
A. Hacker broke her own record set last year in the 1600m race. She ran a 5:07.87 to come in third to break her own mark. A. Hacker also set two other PR’s in the 400m and the 800m races. A. Hacker (2:25.59) finished first in the 800m, while coming in fourth in the 400m in a time of 1:02.01.
Bushling finished second in the triple jump to take down the school record. She soared 34’ 7” for her record and in doing so accomplished a PR. She was fifth in the long jump at 14’ 9” and was fourth in the 100m in a time of 12.78. Bushling was also part of the 4x 100 relay team of Scarlet Weber, Ashley Denys, and Jessie Bunting. They would set a PR in a time of 52.65.
For the Lady Broncs eight other athletes ended their day with PR’s. Weber was able to run to a pair of PR’s in the 100m (12th) and 200m (10th). Her times were 13.58 and 27.99, respectively. Kyla Hacker was ninth in both the 800m (2:37.91) and 1600m (5:39.54) to set PR’s. Mikaela Richie finished with two PR’s in shot put and discus. She tossed the discus 57’ to finish 27th and was 29th in the shot put with a throw of 22’ 2”. Claire Feldschau came in 26th in the 400m in a PR of 1:11.09, while Abigael Phillips (17th) in the 300m hurdles in a time of 1:01.38 set her PR.
Elizabeth Davis (11’ 6”) was 23rd in the long jump for her PR, while Denys (14.48) came in 34th in the 100m for her PR. Isabelle Valdez threw the shot put 19’ 4” to come in 35th. This was Valdez’s PR at the Invitational.
In other action, Bunting (28.9) was 20th in the 200m, while Kaya Manwell (31.22) was 39th. Ella Mauer came in 16th in the 300m hurdles and 19th in the 100m hurdles. Her times were 59.72 and 21.15, respectively. Phillips was 20th in the 100m hurdles in a time of 22 flat
Denys took home the 11th place finish in the shot put with a throw of 26’ 9”. Marissa Tate was 22nd in the discus with her throw of 62’ 4”. In the high jump, Madelyn Beaton (6th) and Bunting (9th) each had jumps of 4’ 6”. The place difference comes down to fewer attempts made.
Rounding out the strong finish for the Lady Broncs was Beaton in the triple jump. She leaped 25’ 1” in coming home with an 18th place finish.
Head coach Brent Mixon said, “Each week our kids are getting better and better. I am so excited for this team. We have a lot of potential and it will be exciting to see where we end up once we get deep into our season. We have one more week to prepare for league meets. League will begin with a quad meet at Desert High, against Bishop, Boron, and Desert. That meet will take place on March 20th.”
The Lady Broncs will tune up one more time before league action at the Delano Relays in Delano on March 15.
