There is no doubt that members of SJHHS track will be making it to State Championships this year. According to Cat Nolan, one of the track coaches, many athletes go “above and beyond.” They do this by “showing how hard they work.They watch what they eat. They watch what they do in their free time,” says Nolan.
Many of them set high standards for themselves and work hard toward the goal of making it to State Championships. Examples of these star athletes are Lexi Shaw, Kylee Vandenberg, Spencer Danner, and Christopher Camarena.
“They are all phenomenal role models and set good examples,” says Nolan. The following are some words of inspiration by the star athletes themselves:
“If you’re willing to put in the work, track is fun. Oh and Lexi Shaw is spunky,” says Vandenberg, who has excelled as both a scholar and an athlete, for she has a total GPA of 4.0 and was recently honored as the 2013 OCADA Female Athlete of Character and Honor. On the track, she has found success as a multi-event athlete setting school records in the 200M, shot put, and discus here at San Juan Hills High School.
She currently has a career best of 4303 points in the Heptathlon achieved this past April at the Arcadia Invitational. She placed 6th among a nationally ranked group of competitors.
Her performance at this competition in the Javelin of 122 ½ feet has earned her 2nd team US Elite status and paves the way for a bright future. Kylee looks forward to continuing her athletic career at the next level and studying Kinesiology.
“I use other people as goals. Like if someone is better than you, use them as a goal and beat them,” says Danner.
“I’ve been working really hard and I know that if I keep up, my goals will be accomplished,” says Shaw.
“To get better, I run with the faster kids to try to get my time to drop and practicing harder of course,” says Camarena.
Shaw and Vandenberg are considered the “deadly duo.” They go back and forth with their records and they both keep Nolan’s mailbox full of college letters requesting them.
“Honestly, I fear for people who go against them. That’s what’s fun about being their coach. They’re ferocious! They’re the nicest girls on the team; you wouldn’t expect them to be ferocious. As soon as they put on their spikes, they’re like ‘I’m gonna beat you!’ ” says Nolan.
As reported by Nolan, the track team is in Division Three which consists of about 122 different schools that they are going to face, some of the best schools in the nation “purely due to enrollment.” Their last home meet was last Wednesday against Laguna Hills High School. Nolan wants to “focus on the end of the season for the best times and marks and put in the hard work now” because May 3rd is CIF time and in order to make it to State Championships, they have got to make it past CIF first.
