Last Thursday evening, many members of the Claremont High School girls varsity track team left campus thinking that even though they had strong individual performances, the team had lost the meet. Turns out, they were wrong.

An error in the initial results tabulation had Glendora narrowly defeating Claremont, but in fact, the Pack edged out the Tartans 73-63. Tensions were a bit elevated as coaches from both teams went back over the score sheets to be sure the new outcome was correct.

As the recount was ongoing, veteran running coach Rob Lander, who is in his first year leading the girls track squad, complained, “I am in pain right now, nothing is worse than losing by a few points.” But as the recount was verified his mood turned to jubilation and praise for the Tartans. “It was a good old fashioned dog fight, Glendora always does a good job.”

It was an exciting finish to an exciting meet, including the boys decisive victory over Glendora, 84-47.

Claremont’s distance runners have been dominating the completion for several years and this was another example of their strength. The girls swept the 1600-meter event and in a show of solidarity crossed the finish line together. Annie Boos was given the victory with Tess Rounds at second, Jax Heckers third and Janelle Baeskens taking fourth. Each runner received nearly the same time separated by fractions of a second.

Rounds finished her day strong with a commanding win in the 3200-meter event, which may have been the margin that gave Claremont the points to win.

The boys also did well in the distance events, which provided for one of the most entertaining final laps of the day.

The 3200-meter race started like so many others with the top runners clustering at the front. At about the halfway point, Glendora runner Oliver Kashyap picked up the pace and gained a small lead. But he went out too fast, too early and sophomore Ryan Renken soon reeled him in and then just kept going for the lead.

Then things got exciting in the last 400 meters. Kashyap, having found a second wind, overtook Backman and looked to be on his way to a second place finish until Bishop exploded from the back and, looking like a sprinter, passed both his teammate and the Tartan to take second behind Renken.

Boys coach Veronica Amarasekara was quite pleased to say the least, exclaiming as Bishop recovered in the infield, “Owen I am so impressed, you put the hammer down.”

Other top performances include:

Claremont has a new star sprinter in multi-sport phenom Duy Tran Sampson. He won both the 100 and 200-meter sprints, as well as anchoring the Pack’s victory in the 4×100 relay.

Jonah Ross took first in the 1600-meter event with teammates Jeremy Dvorak in second and Renken in third.

The boys also did well in the discus, led by senior Kyle Duckering who took first with a throw of 112 feet, three and a half inches. Freshman Dane Gordien came in second with his throw of 111 feet one quarter inch.

Bryan Brown won the high jump clearing a height of 5 feet two inches and took second in the long jump at 17 feet 10 and one half inches. In addition, pole vaulter Max McGuire hit a new personal best clearing 12 feet on his way to a second place.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com