Marcel Espinoza perseveres in playoffs despite injury

One-hundred-meter sprinter Marcel Espinoza (’16), who currently holds the fourth fastest 100 meter time in California of 10.55 seconds, ended up fifth in division finals and was not able to qualify for masters.However, with a pulled ham- string that began in league and lasted to his final meet on Saturday, Espinoza prevailed throughout playoffs.According to coach Tania Fischer, the doctor anticipated that Espinoza would have to take off three weeks of track to strictly focus on rehab and strengthening mainte- nance.Considering all the time that Espinoza spent off the track, his future in league and where he would stand for the rest of season was unclear. However, this was proved to be irrelevant on May 16, when he placed first in his heat and second overall with a time of 10.79 seconds.While Espinoza is not currently at his best physically, he has made up for this with his confidence and experience in the playoff level. As a sophomore last year, Espino- za placed second in Division 1 for Southern California and fifth in state.Espinoza is also a versatile player who excels in several events, and is always there to step up when needed.

“Our goal was [for him] to do the 100 and the 200 this year, then maybe move onto the 400 next year as a senior,” Fischer said. “Unfortunately he hurt his hamstring.”This philosophy has greatly appealed to Espinoza throughout his years as a Samo track player, considering that he dropped his childhood sport, football, to put all his focus on what he declares as his passion, track.“Marcel is an amazing athlete,” Ariel Silverman (’15) said. “It’s so cool to see all his hard work paying off, and he’s such a leader on the team. He’s a role model to all of us. It was [hard] seeing him injured, but he’s making a strong comeback and achieving great goals.”While currently running at college times, Marcel is being recruited by several colleges, such as UCLA, USC, Cal Poly, Brown and Harvard.“I’m really anxious to see what I can do in the future,” Espinoza said.