By Leonard COUTIN

The CIF prelims for track and field were held Saturday at Trabuco Hills High School in Irvine. For the audience and participants it proved to be a record-scoring day.
Division 1 is known as one of the toughest and strongest competing divisions in CIF. Though the Falcons performed gallantly in the prelims, none made qualifying times to advance to the finals taking place Saturday, May 21 at Cerritos College.
“We knew it would be tough to qualify to CIF finals,” said Coach Mark Evans. “Only nine qualify to go on. I stressed that we needed to compete to the best of our ability.  The goal was to see if we could improve our marks. We came pretty close to our best marks, so I was happy with how we competed. For those coming back [next season], this is a great learning experience and I wanted them to see what this is like so that they can come back next year and have a shot at making it to CIF finals.”
Evans added that for the graduating seniors, competing at prelims was a reward for all the hard work invested. For Claudia Pham, who was sick and could not compete, and Anneke Kakebeen, who barely missed qualifying, this is just “a bump.”
“They have the potential for successful careers in college,” he said.
For more photos of the CIF prelims, visit www.cvweekly.com and click on Sports

  Leonard Coutin, MAY 19, Sports