A few Riverbank High School athletes were invited to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto over the past weekend.
There, standout junior Giselle Fernandez competed in the 1600-meter race, breaking a record that has lasted in Stanislaus County for 12 years, and beating it by 2.5 seconds: 4:51.77. Although she set the new county record, she placed fourth at Stanford.
Distance records run in her family, with her brother, German, holding both the 1600- and 3200-meter records at RHS, set back in the early 2000s. The Riverbank German Fernandez Distance Carnival is set for Friday, April 25.
Prior to the invitational, in action Thursday, April 3, Fernandez ran in the Mother Lode League Cluster #1 Meet, hosted at Riverbank High, setting a school record for a first place in the 800 meters, at 2:24.25. She also won the 3200-meter race, at 12:55.90, then came in second in the 1600 meters, at 5:39.66.
She was also part of the second-place quartet in the 4x400-meter relay, along with Gianna Cruz, Olivia Bulygo and Jessica Vigil, at 4:34.61.
There were several Riverbank runners, jumpers and throwers doing well at the first MLL Meet.
In the boys 100-meter race, sophomore Enrique Garnica came in first, at 11.63 seconds, while junior Vidal Cardenas came in sixth, at 15.49. In the 200-meters, David Ten Fingers Runson placed fourth, at 25.52, while Diego Vigil came in fifth, at 26.28.
In the 400-meter, three Riverbank athletes placed in consecutive finishes as junior Victor Bermudez took second, with a personal record of 55.03, while Alejandro Ochoa was third, at 56.28, also a PR, and Runson came in fourth, at 58.01.
RHS junior Gustavo Ortiz captured first place in the 800-meter, at 2:11.00, while Ochoa came in third and Bermudez placed fourth. In the 1600-meter race, junior Matt Santana placed first, at 4:44.27, and sophomore Armando Garcia came in second, at 4:53.79.
The 3200-meter was won by Santana, at 11:04.94, with Garcia finishing second at 11:14.01.
In the 4x400 meter relay, Luke Castro, Enrique Garnica, Daniel Orunja and Alex Melo set a personal record at 46.76.
On the girls side, junior Maya Guzman placed fourth in the 100-meter, at 13:26, and second in the 200-meter, at 27.26, a PR. She also finished first in the long jump, at 16-feet, 6-inches, and again first in the triple jump, at 33-feet, 3-inches.
Bruin Co-Ed Tennis
Last week’s weather got in the way of Riverbank’s scheduled Mother Lode League matches.
Some of the matches have had to be rescheduled, according to coach Bruce Edwards.
“The match against Summerville is rescheduled … we will be going there two days in a row. The home match against Bret Harte has been rescheduled to this Friday due to their spring break and weather (snow),” Edwards explained.
The coach said it seemed “only fair to reschedule the match” and not have the Bullfrogs have to forfeit several of the matches.
“So, this week we will have four matches in a row; one third of the season played in four days,” Edwards said. “We did play Calaveras last Thursday. winning 9-0, with three forfeits by them and two close matches in girls singles one and two.”
Bruin Baseball
Varsity baseball hosted Linden High School on Friday, April 4, playing two games, losing both, 10-0. They were set to play two games at Bret Harte on April 8 and on Friday, they’re scheduled to travel to Calaveras.
Lady Bruin Softball
Riverbank girls also hosted Linden in action this past week, falling 5-1 in the Friday game. They were set to play at Linden on Monday this week, and also at Bret Harte on Tuesday.
