The Christopher girls track and field team bested North Salinas Thursday to kick off the league season.
The Cougars edged out North Salinas 80-48 while the boys fell 84.5-51.5.
But there were strong performances for both the boys and the girls.
Vanessa Koontz was a double-winner in the 100 and 200 meters as Christopher swept the sprints with Aischa Goudy winning the 400-meter run and 300-meter hurdles.
Haley Romero rounded out the sprint wins with a 100-meter hurdle win.
Koontz set the tone with dominant wins in the 100 meters by almost a full second and the 200 meters by three seconds.
She took the first in 12.93, edging Denis Tores-Alfaro who finished in 13.82. Then in in the 200 she finished in 26.49 easily beating Selah Bushnell who ran a 29.51.
Goudy took the 300-meter hurdles by almost 10 seconds, sprinting by Tores-Alfaro in 52.94 to the North Salinas runner’s time of 1:01.40.
Goudy then took the 400 in a photo-finish, out stretching Kylie Almazan of North Salinas in 1:07.23 to win by 0.39 seconds.
Rounding out the sprints was Romero who won the 100-meter hurdles in 16:46, to edge teammate Goudy by 0.73 seconds.
Those three runners teamed up with Kiana Aquino to win the 4×100 relay with a time of 52.25 to beat North Salinas, who won in 53.36.
Rounding out the relay, the team of Koontz, Romero, Jillian Foster and Xenia Cruz won the 4×400 relay with a time of 4:30.62, to best North Salinas’ time of 4:36.32.
In the field events, Isabella Jimenez and Sienna Cordova dominated the discus, with Jimenez winning with a toss of 88 feet, 8 inches. Cordova took second with a throw of 85 feet, 2 inches.
In the jumps, Romero led the way with a long jump win at 16 feet, 10 inches.
In the triple jump, Andrea Ortiz took the contest with a leap of 31 feet, 3 inches, besting teammate Andrea Levan who took second with a jump of 30 feet, 5 inches.
Finally, Tiffany Comento won the high jump with a 4-foot leap. Teammate Gorjette Sweidan took second clearing the 4-foot mark.
In the boys contest, Christopher had plenty of strong performances.
Isaac McCrimon won the 100-meter race, edging out Timothy Hunter by 0.32 seconds. McCrimon won with a time of 11:31.
Tyler Parsley tied for third, running an 11.73.
Parsley went on to win the boys 200-meter race, taking the race more than a second over Hunter, with a time of 23.66.
Kevin Mosca took third with a time of 25.63.
In the relays, the Christopher team won the 4×100 after North Salinas failed to make the handoff in the second exchange. The team of Eddie Prado, McCrimon, Victor Guerrero and Parsley finished in a time of 46.75.
In the 4×400 relay, Christopher fell by five seconds, with the squad of Christian Aldape, Cesar Gutierrez, David Macias and Jose Patino finishing with a time of 3:40.04 behind North Salinas’ 3:35.22.
Christopher also did well in the field events, especially in the jumps.
Josiah Hobbs beat his two opponents by a full eight inches, clearing 5 feet, 10 inches.
In the pole vault, Kyle Ettema cleared more than a foot more than teammate Zacharias Callaham, going 11 feet, 3 inches. Callaham went 10 feet with North Salinas’ Isaiah Guerra clearing 10 feet.
Rounding out the wins for the boys was McCrimon, who cleared 21 feet 4 inches
Christopher had several other strong finishes on the day.
In the 400-meter race, Guerrero took second with a time of 54.78 with Mosca taking third in 57.77.
In the hurdles, Spencer Birrell took second in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 20.63.
In the 300-meter hurdles, Jacob Rodriguez took second in 46.62.
Austin Hudson ran the distance races, with his best time coming in the 3200-meter race with a third-place finish in 11:09.32. He also took fifth in the 800m with a time of 2:17.91. Hudson lastly took fifth in the 1600 meters with a time of 5:05.61.
