5-0, the track and field team has remained undefeated almost to the end of the season. Along the way, two talented athletes have emerged. Sprinter freshman Daria Mohazab and long and triple jumper senior Jake Pacheco.
Mohazab said she joined the track team unaware of her natural talent. She is in her first season running competitively and she is the only underclassman on varsity short distance.
“I wanted to do a sport, but I didn’t know which sport I should do,” Mohazab said. “I was thinking about lacrosse or track and my dad was like ‘you’re fast, do track,’ and I said okay.”
Mohazab said she chose short distance instead of long distance running because she doesn’t like running for long periods of time.
Upon joining the track team Mohazab was placed on the varsity 4×100 relay team with senior school record holder Lauren Remer, senior Maddy Prybl, junior Sophie McCracken and junior Maya Thomas. Mohazab said it is scary and there is a lot of pressure to run with, and against seniors.
However Mohazab is not new to competing along with upperclassman. She has played soccer both on junior varsity and varsity last season.
Along with relays, she has competed in the 100 meter and 200 meter race and has only been defeated once in a league meet. Her best time for the 100 meter was 13.06 seconds, 0.46 seconds over the school record set in 1977.
Mohazab said that being so close to the school record drives her to continue with sprinting.
“It is rewarding beating older girls from other teams and makes me feel good about myself,” Mohazab said.
Also relatively new to track and field, starting mid way through the 2012 season, senior Jake Pacheco is now ranked third in California for long jump.
“I was originally just doing track in order to get faster for football, but I tried long jumping one day and really enjoyed it,” he said.
Pacheco jumped 22 feet and 2 inches on March 21 at a dual meet against San Lorenzo, however he didn’t know at the time the jump ranked him third in state.
“I found out when coach Smith announced it to the team, so it came as a surprise to me,” Pacheco said. “It was a pretty special feeling to be able to see where I ranked among the long jumpers in California.”
Pacheco committed to jump for Cal Poly next year.
Smith said after talking to Pacheco about what school he wanted to attend academically, he contacted the Cal Poly coach to see if they were interested in Pacheco joining their track team.
“They told me they had already talked to him and were looking forward to having him on the team,” Smith said.
