By Sydney Andrade and Jeffrey Rawlinson Express staff writers
Winters High School athletes went back at it to wrap up the season for a some sports, while others still have a few more weeks of play.
Swim The WHS swim team traveled to Sutter for their third and final meet of the season, as well as to celebrate its seniors.
The 200 medley relay race is supposed have four different swimmers, but with only two athletes on the women’s relay, Madeline MacMahon and Amelia Doran switched between each leg. They duo completed the event with a time of 2:09.41.
Men’s relay athletes Kenneth Matheson, Eithyn Mello, Diego Valencia and Christian Gonzalez finished their medley race in 2:30.62.
Doran also competed in the 200 meter freestyle finishing 2:15.19, and the 100 meter breaststroke at 1:16.32.
MacMahon competed in the 50 meter freestyle coming in at 25.92 seconds, and the 100 Meter Breaststroke finishing at 1:06.22.
Lillian Back — the only other swimmer on the women’s team this season — swam the 50 meter freestyle in 33.58, and the 100 meter backstroke in 1:36.26.
In the men’s 50 meter freestyle, Valencia finished in 24.44 seconds, while Mello swam it in 26.89.
In the 100 meter breaststroke, Mello swam it in 1:19.16, and Matheson in 1:27.73 minutes.
In the 100 meter freestyle Valencia swam it in 56.88 seconds, and Matheson swam it in 1:12.08.
Track & Field The WHS track and field team hosted their second home track meet on Tuesday, May 18, competing against Pierce, Willows and East Nicolaus.
Brandon Colter came in fourth in the 100 meter event at 12.47 seconds, followed closely by Jesus Cruz at 12.50 in fifth place — both setting a personal record.
Vicky Banuelos and Mallory Layne ran the 100 meter dash, taking first and second at 13.87 and 13.97 respectively.
Ethan Demment ran the 200 meter coming in first with a time of 25.81 seconds. Christian Hernandez placed first in the 400 meter at 59.94 and the 800 meter at 2:29.25. Alberto Duran took third in the 400 meter with a time of 2:44.51.
Liliana Rodriguez led the in the 200 meter, taking first place with 27.88. Banuelos was right behind to take third with 28.60.
Rodriguez took second in the 400 meter at 1:09.10 and Viridiana Reyes took third at 1:15.52.
In the men’s 1600 meter, Colter placed second, finishing at 5:08.62 — Wesley Coker took third with 5:38.30. In the women’s 1600 meter event, Ava Skinner took first at 7:08.30 — right behind was Ruby Campos at 7:54.53.
In the 4×100 relay, the Warriors competed with four teams. The women’s teams came in first at 57.53 and second at 59.97 seconds. The men’s teams placed second at 50.03 and third at 51.07 seconds.
In throwing events, Demment pushed the shot put 35 feet, 4.5 inches taking first. Fatima Guzman won the discus event with a 81.3-feet throw. In the discus event, Emmett Edman threw for 86 feet, taking second.
Softball The WHS softball team played three games against some tough competitors. On Tuesday, May 18, they lost their last home conference game against East Nicolaus High School 13-0. They played East Nicolaus a second time on Friday, May 21. and lost again with the same score.
“We took two very hard losses against a very strong team. Our batting still needs a lot of improvement and East Nicolaus has some really strong pitchers,” said assistant coach Barbara Carrion.
Lauren Back was the only Warrior to get a hit against East Nicolaus but wasn’t given the opportunity to capitalize on it. While Winters still has some work to do with their batting, they did have some infield plays that showed great improvement from the beginning of the season. Makayla Garland made an impressive play, snagging a line drive and threw out the runner at second for a double play. Gianna Carrion and Isabella Mehl also made some great defensive plays, unfortunately it just wasn’t enough to stop East Nicolaus from scoring.
The softball team did better in their game against Live Oak on Thursday, May 20. The win was within their grasp but sadly, they ended up losing 6-4.
Gianna pitched an impressive game with 14 strikeouts and only one walk out of 25 batters. Emily Aguiar put the Warriors in the lead in the first inning by taking advantage of the opponent’s errors and scoring a run. Jozlyn Rooney scored off of Gianna’s RBI in the fifth inning, but Live Oak was still ahead by the sixth inning when Alexis Hellinger and Mehl both scored runs off of a hit made by Shelby Boykin, tying the score.
“Live Oak scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth and we just couldn’t catch up,” said Carrion.
The softball team will play their final two games of the season this week.
Baseball After their 5-1 loss against East Nicolaus on Tuesday, May 18, the varsity baseball team redeemed themselves when they faced East Nicolaus again on Friday, May 21, winning 4-1.
The Warriors played a great defensive game against East Nicolaus on Friday. Anthony Duran took the mound and struck out several batters. Grayson Roberts and Derrick Olson were also critical in defensive plays. Roberts dominated the field catching several pop flies and rarely let anything past him. Olson also made impressive plays at second base.
Roberts also had a great day at bat, going two for three with one RBI. Duran hit a single in the second inning that allowed both Logan Spears and Erick Rodarte to advance across home plate. Rodarte put another run on the board
in the sixth inning after both Duran and Roberts were hit by East Nicolaus Pitcher. Connor Ray hit the final RBI in the sixth inning, allowing Olson to score the fourth run for the Warriors.
The baseball team has three more games this week before ending the season.
Men’s Basketball On Monday the Warriors traveled to Highlands High School in Sacramento, hosted Highlands High School on Tuesday, and traveled to Pierce High School on Thursday. The Warriors went 0-3 for the week.
“They were very competitive games that show major signs of improvement as the guys get used to how I am asking them to play,” said coach Brendan McShea.
At Highlands the Warriors fell by 10 points to a very athletic and aggressive team. Carson Lowrie and Matt Moore took to the hardwood with strong performances on both ends of the court.
The Warriors next played Highlands at home, gaining a 12-point lead early in the game. David Reyes led the team with 14 points. Marcus Lopez and Lowrie each made three steals.
“Highlands increased their pressure and were able to get some turnovers down the stretch. We ended up losing in a close game,” said McShea.
“I felt the second game against Pierce would be a good test to see how far we have come since playing them in the second game of the season,” he added.
Thursday, the Warriors went back on the road to Pierce. Memo Valadez put up 12 points to help Winters take the lead. Although they were ahead in the first half, they fell behind by 16 points after the break and were unable to close the gap. In addition, they also missed some open shots.
“To make a great improvement in such a short time against a very strong opponent is a great sign of things to come,” McShea said.
Women’s Basketball The WHS women’s basketball team also took on Highlands and Pierce High Schools.
On Monday, May 17, the Warriors lost to the Scots on the road with a score of 53-22. Mickayla Passantino lead the team, putting up six points, making 10 rebounds and five steals.
Coach Andrew Lincoln said once again turnovers doomed the team, who only shot 17 percent from the field.
They took on Highlands again in a back-to-back game at home on Tuesday, May 18. Passantino led again, putting up 14 points, including four three-pointers — she also made four rebounds and three steals. Lincoln noted Danielle Johnson also chipped in with 18 rebounds. The Warriors lost 60-27.
Winters travelled to Pierce on Thursday, May 20. Lincoln said Passantino and Johnson were both strong performers against the Bears as well, despite losing to Pierce 68-27.
