By Ray Conner
Taking up right where she left off, Aspen Hacker of the Lady Broncs track team ran to a first-place finish in the 1600m at the Kern Invitational held at Liberty High School.
Coming off a very successful track season last year. A. Hacker got it started in the right way. She ran to the win in a time of 5:30.97. She would also take second in the 3200m in a time of 12:49.46. She capped off her individual experience with a fourth place in the 800m with a time of 2:31.58. A. Hacker also ran in the 4 x 400m relay. She and her teammates finished in 14th in a time of 4:54.59. This went a long way in the Kern Valley squad finishing in fourth place as a team. There was a total of 18 teams that had athletes in the competition.
There were many more highlights on the day as the Lady Broncs had a strong showing. Jessie Bunting and Emily Blankenship finished 3-4 respectively in the high jump. Bunting had a jump of 4’ 10”, while Blankenship’s leap went 4’ 6”. Jayda Bushling in a very competitive 100m race was able to earn a fifth-place finish. Her time was 12.48 which was .5 second faster than this time last year. She would follow that up with a 10th in the 200m with a time of 27.50. Bushling also was part of both relay teams. The 4 x 100 team of Bushling, Ashley Denys-Espinoza, Kiera Hayes, and Scarlett Weber finished the relay in a time of 54.37 to collect the eighth-place spot.
Kern Valley’s Kiera Hayes makes an attempt in the long jump at Liberty High School at the Kern Invitational.
Submitted photo
There were two other Top-10 finishers for the Lady Broncs. Kyla Hacker was 10th in the 3200m (13:27.05) and Hayes was 10th on the triple jump with a leap of 28’ 6”. K. Hacker also competed in the 4 x 400m relay. She ran to a 13th in the 1600m (6:02.57) and was 16th in the 800m (2:44.77). Hayes was on the 4 x 100m relay team for Kern Valley. In the long jump, Hayes had a jump of 14’ 5” which was good for 14th. In her final event she ran the 200m in a time of 32.07 to take 34th. Weber ran the 4 x 400m relay and in individual events ran the 100m in a time of 13.78 which placed her 23rd. The 200m was a 44th place in a time of 36.60. Denys-Espinoza along with her run in the 4 x 100m was able to earn a 36th place in the 100m in a time of 14.71.
Peyton Forbes jumped her way to a 13th place in the triple jump (26’ 9”) and a 25th in the long jump (12’ 4.5”). Claire Feldschau was able to collect a pair of 19th place finishes in the 100m (21.31) and the 300m hurdles (1:03.32). Ella Mauer took 20th in the 100m hurdles with a time of 21.39, while Abigael Phillips was 22nd in the 300m hurdles (1.11.61) and was 28th in the 100m hurdles (23.58). Rounding out the events on the track, Greta Boettcher, the exchange student from Germany had finishes of 34th in the 400m (1:16.58), 40th in the 800m (3:12.30), and was 46th in the 1600m (7:01.19).
Turning to the field events, Scarlett Russell was the top finisher for Kern Valley. She tossed the discus 70’ 3” to take the 19th spot. She followed that up with a heave of 19’ 8” in the shot put to take 36th. Isabelle Mosqueda finished 37th in the discus (47’ 7”) and was 42nd in the shot put (16’ 3.5”). Closing out the successful day for the Lady Broncs, LP Ministero was 38th in the shot put (19’ 0.5”) and was 39th in the discus (11’ 1”).
Head coach Kenny Bushling commenting on his charges said, “It was a good first meet for us. Definitely a learning experience as we have several new athletes. I felt that we had an excellent meet and gained valuable experience. It gave us an opportunity to establish times and we will be setting goals both as a team and individually. This season we are working with our relay teams. I want to really put together a couple of competitive teams.”
The Lady Broncs will be right back at it on Friday as they make the trip to Bakersfield College to compete in the East Relays.
