Field events saw major improvement and changes this year with the introduction of pole vaulting to the lineup of events and an unprecedented sense of community among the team.

The addition of pole vaulting came as a result of the coaches’ decision after losing the CIF title last year to Mater Dei High. Mater Dei had a greater amount of points as a result of its inclusion of pole vaulting in its lineup of events.

Pole vaulting has been well-received so far.

“It’s pretty fun, but practices are pretty hard. It gets really tiring, and it’s scary to see other people get hurt while pole vaulting,” Calvin Tran, who is the only senior on pole vaulting, said.

Despite the fact that training and practices only started a little after season began, the pole vaulters are confident in their abilities and express genuine enjoyment in what they do.

“I like it when you go over the bar and you’re falling down and you can feel the air beneath you before you land on the pad. It’s so much fun,” Tran said.

Tran placed third at league finals last Saturday.

Both jumpers and throwers on the track and field team saw success in their performances this season. Several students expressed the sense of unity they felt among the team.

“I feel like more people were cheering on and staying for other events. One of my favorite parts of being a jumper is that we’re always at the very end of the field where there’s nobody else, so when there’s other events going on at the track, they can always hear us cheering,” senior Alicia Escalante said.

Escalante competes in both the long jump and triple jump events. Senior jumpers Scott Patton and Emile Bryant are also going to CIF.

Throwing captain and senior Michael Echeverria expressed his sense of community as well. Echeveria competes in both shot put and discus throw.

“We have been more of a family than we ever have been. This year we got really close with each other, we all helped each other in practice, we all motivated each other and we all gave each other morale during practice and during the meets,” Echeverria said.

Although throwing made it to league finals, no throwers made it to CIF this year.