By Patrick Dillon @PDillon_SGN
EXETER – If this year’s Monarch Invitational was any indication of how close Central Sequoia League competition is going to shape up, then the results are going to be close. The Exeter girls took third, eight points behind Hanford West, in the Sequoia/Sierra Division, and the boys took second just ahead of Kingsburg and Selma.
“This is going to be how league finals is going to be,” Exeter head coach Darin Lasky said. “I knew we’d be okay, but some of the times we put up I was happy with.”
Two of the areas where Exeter made great strides was in both of the 4×100 relay teams. The girls had been without their normal anchor leg running in Teagan Bryant. She had been on college visits for some of the earlier meets. For the invitational Lasky made the switch from Ivy Miller back to Bryant and it turned out to be the difference as they won with a time of 52.53 seconds. Exeter beat Central Valley Christian’s relay team to the line by six hundredths of a second.
“I blew up their line up and put Teagan in the relay and it was a really good race for us,” Lasky said.
Lasky did the same with the boys by adding Aaron Boesch to the anchor leg, and they got the same result. Exeter won the Sequoia Division after clocking a time of 44.55 seconds. It was second overall to the Redwood Rangers.
“It is nice that we can maneuver people in and out,” Lasky said.
As a result of the wins both teams have already qualified for the Central Area meet in May. As a result, it has opened up the door for Exeter to try and fine tune their events.
“Now that we have some times in we don’t have to worry about working as hard at track meets,” Lasky said.
In the boys’ field events, Exeter has two throwers, Nicolas Tangonan and Jordan Mueller, which should bring them some much needed points when it comes time for the CSL Championships. In the discus they finished one and two with Mueller edging out Tangonan 141 feet and 8 inches to 134 feet and 0.5 inches.
Mueller’s throw was a career personal best.
In the shot put it was Tangonan who out did his teammate by throwing a distance of 45 feet and 10.50 inches. It was good enough for second behind Dirk Nelson from Central Valley Christian.
Mueller finished fourth in the Sequoia Division with a distance of 41 feet and 4.75 inches.
“Those two guys have been working hard competing with each other,” Lasky said. “They’re a tough tandem, and all their hard work is beginning to pay off.”
