The Cougars will be sending five athletes to state, including one relay team. Individuals Laura Voss and Cody Clifford made it to state as well.
"We feel very good about our performance," SSHS assistant coach Winston Mora said. "We had improvement in most of the races. We showed we can compete."
SSHS head coach Pat McGuire said he threw Voss, a freshman, into the hurdles event at the beginning of the year because he had a hunch. It paid off.
Voss qualified for state in the girls 300-meter hurdles with a school record time of 46.12 seconds, good enough for third place in that event. She nearly made it in two other events. She took fourth place in both the 100- and 200-meter dash events.
Clifford had a day for himself. The junior took second place in the boys 100-meter dash with a time of 10.99 seconds and third place in the 400-meter dash with a time of 49.62 seconds. Clifford broke the SSHS record in the 400-meter dash event.
Clifford was also in the 4x100m relay team that took third place to make it into state with a time of 43.83 seconds. The other team members were Sullivan Stevens, Zach Ransom and Justus Mora. Coming into the regional meet, Spanish Springs' relay team was ranked fifth on paper.
"We came and on every position we ran improvements," Cougars' Manuel Magana said. "We finished higher than expected and captured attention from other teams."
As a team, the Spanish Springs boys placed ninth out of 15 schools with 35 points. The girls were 12th with 21 points.
McGuire feels like the program is turning a corner. He said interest has been growing around the school, and several students have already told him they will join the team next year.
"Sometimes you have to bring an old school coach out of retirement to turn a program around," the Cougars' second-year coach said.
Reed finished one spot in the standings behind Spanish Springs in both the boys and the girls competition.
This season Reed will be sending two regional champions to compete at state.
A champion in last year's regional meet, Adrienne Hill took first place in two separate events, winning the girls shot put and discus throw. Hill recorded all 20 points for the Raiders' girls squad.
Junior Zach Comphel took first place in the 110-meter hurdles and finished fourth in the 300-meter hurdles, missing state by two-tenths of a second in the latter.
"He was ranked fourth I think and he came out and won the whole thing," Reed coach Dale Moss said.
Moss said one disappoint for the squad was the boys 4x200m relay. Kyle Leigh, Tyler Olivero, Comphel and Lum Coleman took fourth place, about two-tenths of a second behind Hug, which claimed third.
"We beat them last week. They
just ran a better race today," Moss said.
The state finals begin Friday at Damonte Ranch High School.
•In the 3A, Sparks did not have many placers at the regional track meet. But when athletes placed, they placed often.
On the boys' side, Bryan Orellana took second in both the triple jump and the discus and also was fourth in the long jump to lead the Railroaders.
Juan Gomez was fifth in the shot put, while the 4x200m relay placed seventh.
For the girls, Gabriela Diaz and Sierra Shaw both placed in two individual events. Diaz was second in the 1,600 meters and sixth in the 800 meters. Shaw, a sprinter, placed fifth and seventh in the 200m and 100m respectively.
Danielle Carr finished eighth in the 400m.
Sparks' girls relays also performed well Saturday. The 4x200m (seventh), 4x400m (sixth) and the 4x800m (third) racked up a total of 11 points for the Maroon and Gold.
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