Panthers Place Third at Norcal Preview Meet

With nearly all the Northern California teams in Hayward Saturday for the Norcal Preview Meet, the Hartnell College track & field team got a good idea of the path that they must traverse to reach potential top three team trophies come May. T The men, with five State qualifying marks, were a solid third place just three points from second. The men trailed only conference rival how tallied 101 points and Big 8 conference school Diablo Valley College with 73 points with the Panthers right behind at 70 points. 

The Panthers tallied their first State Qualifying marks on the track in the 1500 meter run. Freshman Isaac Gensel, who like his fellow 2020 first year teammate lost that season to COVID, and incoming freshman Esteban Deniz meet the qualifying mark pulling the field four total marks. Deniz would place third in 3:58.79 and Gensel fourth in 3:59.53. The pair returned the track for a rare 1500/10,000 double along with teammate Francisco Maciel. Deniz would lead the trio under the state qualfiying mark with his 32:07.28, Maciel with 32:13.66, and Gensel 32:30.12. 

Fransico Maciel lead a group of Panthers that reached the Norcal Provisional mark in just the team's second meet of the season. Maciel covered the 1500 meters in a time of 4:05.62. Manuel Gallardo added the hammer throw to his end of season schedule with a new lifetime best 41.81. That marks currently sits seventh in the region joining teammate Ashton Headley as potential point scorers. Headley improved his shot put to 13.57m which is ranked sixth in Norcals. Headley also earned the provisional in the discus improving to 40.53m. Freshman Miguel Leon-Fernandez lead a quartet of Panthers who dipped under the 35:00 10,000 meter provisional mark. He was timed in 34:28.71 with teammates Daniel Pantoja (34:37.66), Daniel Correa (34:43.40), and freshman Josh Riley (34:45.18) meeting the standard. 

 The Hartnell track & field team will compete on Friday, March 4 in the Wildcat Cup hosted by Santa Rosa Junior College. This meet was created in 2018 as a unique competition featuring programs who are headed by or have an assistant coach on staff who attended CSU Chico and participated on the Wildcat cross country/track & field teams. This year's meet will feature host Santa Rosa JC, Modesto JC, Chabot College, Hartnell College, Yuba College, Butte College, College of the Redwoods, Diablo Valley College, and Socal counterpart Cuesta College.