Samo Track’s historical season

The 2023 Samo track and field season has made a number of accomplishments.This year, the boys 4x200 and girls 4x800 relay teams have both broken school records and are preparing to qualify for position in the highest competitions. 

The 4x200 team consisting of juniors, Lucas Milk and Spencer Hotch, and seniors, Dylan Hanvey and Gus Reyman, have been taking the Southern California track community by storm this spring. 

The team not only set a new record once but later went on to break the record again in the following track meet. The first time the team broke the record was at Arcadia Invitational. The prestigious track meet is considered one of the most competitive meets in the state. According to Arcadia Invite requirements, the 4x200 relay team needed to run at 1:33.20 which is an average of 23 seconds per 200. The team placed fourth and ran 1:29.03 breaking the 2001 Samo record of 1.29.9.

The second record was broken at the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt.Sac) Invitational presented by Nike, a meet that hosts a mix of high school, collegiate, and professional events. The 4x200 team competed and set another record of 1:28.46, breaking their own record by a whole second.Team Captain Gus Reyman (‘23), talks about the feeling of breaking the old Samo recordand the preparation that led up to the record breaking run.

“It started when we ran the 4x200 at a meet for fun and we were only three seconds off of the record. On that day we knew we could break it once we practiced and got faster. We ran it a few times and got close but once we were put against good competition at Arcadia and Mt. SAC, it was our event.” Reyman said.

The Samo boys’ and girls’  relay teams, although competing in different races, share a common goal to advance to the highest competition possible.  With little time left in their league season, the two teams are preparing to enter bigger meets such as CIF prelims and final along with the masters meet. Long distance girls team captain Claire Kovac (’23) talks about her excitement breaking the previous record and what went on behind the curtains,

“We trained hard over spring break and did pretty hard workouts leading up to it. Once we actually broke the record, we were all incredibly excited and especially as a senior for me it was beyond amazing to do this in my last year” Kovac said.

Besides this, the 4x800 team consists of Cleo Topp (’25), Claire Kovac (’23), Phoebe Benun (’25), and Matilde Martinez-Navarrete (’24). The girls team similarly broke the Samo 4x800 relay of 9:48 in 2016 to 9:26.10 at Mt.SAC. The team averaged 2:21 per 800 to secure the record. The success of the team started can be traced back to their successful cross country.  

Benun now holds the school record for the 4x800, 4x1600, and the individual 1600 meter record. On April 28,at the Bay league finals Benun ran 5:01 breaking the school record of 5:06.42 by five seconds. Benun also secured her spot in the CIF prelims for the 1600 meter and the 3200 meter race as a wild card. Benun speaks on her racing mentality and her feelings on competing against intense competition.

“I’ve been running workouts at five minutes pace and I'm confident with running at that speed now instead of worrying about how fast I can think more about the competition and when I'm going to make a move against other people,” Benun said. 

With the league season now over Benun has a new set of goals for CIF. 

“ I would like to run under five minutes in the 1600 for saturday…For the two I also want to pr [get a personal record] and hopefully get under 11 minutes,” Benun said.

The Samo Boys and Girls relay teams along with individuals, although competing in different races, share a common goal to advance to the highest competition possible. The teams and individuals will be working hard in the next few days to put together final touches before their big races.

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