Maia Hayden begins her spin to launch the discus.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
Paul Byrne, an 11-year math teacher at Muirlands Middle School, is La Jolla's third head track coach in three years. So the former pole vault assistant coach says his goal is to "start building a program for the future."
Byrne seems amiable enough. Coming from the La Jolla cluster, he's aware of the culture and is part of it, as well. That's only positive for the 85 girls and boys he says have gone out for track this spring. Continuity in coaching will only help the student athletes be able to bank on who is in charge of the program, what kind of program is going to be run, and who the assistants to Byrne will be.
"Seventy-five percent of the kids are freshman and sophomores," said Byrne at the start of the opening tri-meet at home against Hilltop and Castle Park. This is the old Edwards Stadium field's last season before being torn up two days after graduation in June.
There were a lot of familiar faces among the Viking athletes, including Lauren Roberts, Sakura Roberson, and many others.
Junior Maia Hayden was manning her craft in discus and shot put. Asked if she gets sore from heaving the weights, she said, "In discus I feel it in my elbow. It's kind of weird. Throwing the shot, the front of my wrist gets sore," showing how the strain on the joint occurs as she cocks her right hand back to cradle the heavy shot.
Roberson worked on homework in the shade of the trees in the northeastern corner of the stadium before she had to warm up for her sprints. Meanwhile, her older, taller sister, Satori, was standing in line with a string of 10 or so La Jolla High girls waiting to run through the pole vault pit to get a feel for it before official vaults started.
The temperature on the artificial surface was hot and sweaty. The younger Roberson says she runs better in warmer weather. She had what the doctor ordered, with temperatures apparently in the low 80's.
Senior Alexei Sebald put the shot 36 feet, 3.5 inches and threw the discus 106 feet, 8 inches to lead La Jolla boys. Hayden recorded numbers of 25 feet, 7 inches and 70 feet, six inches, respectively, for the girls. Fellow junior Marie Rowson was two inches back in the discus with a throw of 70 feet, four inches.
Copyright 2015 Ed Piper
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