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Tigerette track team wins District championship

By Tyler Tyre

Slatonite Intern

The Slaton Tigerettes won the District championship at the District 2-3A track meet as a team, and advanced to the area meet in the process.

Ta’kaja Robinson won a district championship in both long jump and triple jump while Ti’Alice Young coming in second in the triple jump.

Justyne Zapata came in fifth place in the shot put, and Zanady Coronado came in sixth place in the high jump.

Head Coach Rustin Klafka spoke about the commitment it takes from a team to compete at a such a high level.

“Committing to the process is everything. At the team meeting on day one of track season the girls are asked to do three things. One, show up every day ready to focus and work as hard as they can that day.  Two, trust the coaching staff to make the best decisions as the season unfolds for the team and the athlete.  Three, trust the process. Every practice is purposeful, whether it’s a light recovery workout or a grinding mid-distance speed day,” Klafka said.

In the relays, a 4×100-meter relay a team of Kamryn Gibbs, Zanady Coronado, Ta’kaja Robinson and Xazari Naylor won a district championship. In the 4×200-meter relay a team of Natali Soto, Zanady Coronado, Xazari Naylor and Ta’kaja Robinson also took home the top prize. In the 4×400-meter relay, a team of Natali Soto, Ti’Alice Young, Andrea Moreno and Zanady Coronado came in fourth place.

Xazari Naylor also won first place in the 100-meter dash, and Ta’kaja Robinson tied for first in the 200-meter dash.

In the 1600-meter run Aryanna Zapata came in third, Alice Cogburn came in fourth and Emalisa Muniz came in fifth place. Zapata also came in second place in the 3200-meter run, while Cogburn came in fourth.

“All practices are deliberate, and if they know this it helps them understand that we aren’t just having a hard day for the sake of making things tough.  We asked girls to run races they normally don’t in effort to find more points.  People think of track as an individual sport, but we have a team oriented approach,” Klafka said.

The Tigerettes will next compete in the area meet on April 17 in Stinnett, and Klafka has big expectations for the team.

“Our goal to win an Area Championship as a team. We finished last year as runner up and came home dissatisfied. We have a great shot at making another push into Regionals and State, so we are going to train with that in mind and compete like we are the underdogs,” Klafka said.

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