Raging Rhinos perform well at first track and field meet in school history

The Twelve Bridges High School Track and Field team began their first season with a strong performance last Friday in the SacTown Races at Whitney High School. Twelve Bridges High School is Lincoln's second high school, now in its first year. The new school's mascot is the Raging Rhinos. Twelve Bridges' Raging Rhinos boys' and girls' teams finished third last week, coming only behind Whitney High and Oak Ridge High, both Division I squads while Twelve Bridges is in Division V. "Going into the event, as a coach I have to keep the proper perspective and I have a mantra that it matters how we perform in May but not today," coach Rick Brown said. "Going into the meet, we were going in to learn. Some kids had never run in a track meet before. To see the athletes beat Division I kids was the topping on the cake and it was extremely gratifying." For the boys, sophomore Aaron Oriel took first in the 100-meter race with a time of 11.83 seconds and also won in the high jump at 20 feet, one inch besting second-place by eight inches. He also helped the boy's 4x100 meter relay team that also consisted of Evan Lynch, Nathan Crawford and Alejandro Tavelli to a first-place win at 45.65 seconds. The same team finished second in the sprint medley relay. "I'm excited to be a part of starting something new and I want to create a good foundation for our track program," Oriel said. Crawford took third in the 100 meter race while Tavelli and Lynch finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump. On the girls' side, freshman Alysiana Winston was first in the 100 meter race with a time of 12.8 seconds, beating out Oak Ridge's Anjali Schuit by nearly .8 seconds. Winston also anchored the sprint medley relay team to a first-place win by a 10th of a second. The Lady Rhinos were in third-place and behind by 60 meters but Winston came from behind to nip the Trojans and Wildcats at the finish line. The team also included Aleri Cubias, Madison Cherrix and Zayna Flynn. Winston was also on the 4x100 meter relay team that finished third and the 4x400 meter relay team that came in fourth. There were other great performances by the girls as well, including Elodie Anderson winning the 3,200 meter race while Makena Kusick finished fifth in the long jump. Sophomore Stella-Grace Tamayo was second in the high jump and long jump. Tamayo jumped four feet, six inches in the high jump and was only two inches behind Anna Lazaga of Rio Americano. "I was really happy with second in the high jump because it's a new event for me but I plan to work even harder at practice in order to be even better for upcoming meets," Tamayo said. "In future meets for long jump, I plan on extending more so I can set new personal records." The Rhinos performed against Rocklin High and Lincoln High at a practice meet on Wednesday and now are preparing for the LeFebvre Relays at Placer High School on Friday.