Bronco Invite Recap

Written By Ruby Mandell

Hello nighthawk families and fans,

Happy Monday! Saturday we took a limited team to the Don Jones Bronco Invitational, just down the road at Rancho Bernardo High School. There were a TON of great performances by our Nighthawks as well as more movements up our top 10 all-time lists! Find the full meet results here and keep reading for some highlights.

Athletes of the Meet

We want to take the time to highlight a couple of athletes who had spectacular performances at our last meet.

Throws -

  • Kellen Maciejewski (11) came back with yet another huge PR in discus. His throw of 138’8” adds 4' feet to his PR from our meet on Thursday, good for a 2nd place finish over all and another spot up on our All-Time list to 4th!

Sprints -

  • Hannah Im (9) amazing performance in the sprint medley relay with her incredible 400 meter leg. She received the baton in second to last and Hannah came back to win the race for her team. Fantastic effort for a young sprinter.

Hurdles -

  • Danny Tragarz (12) - in his 2nd 300 hurdles of the season (7th in his whole life) Danny finished with a time of 39.97. This was the fastest time of the day and he currently sits 2nd in all of San Diego with that mark. He also won the Open Division of Long Jump and took 3rd in his 110 Hurdles heat, just .04 seconds off his lifetime best.

Distance -

  • Emily Russo (11) dominated the 800 where she led start to finish and came out with a new lifetime PR of 2:19. She also helped her team earn medals in the DMR and 4x400

  • Ben Owsley (9) anchored his team to a 4th place finish with an outstanding 2:09 in the 4x800. A 7 second PR over the span of one week.

Congratulations to all of those athletes on a great meet. We would like to take the time to recognize those athletes whose performance landed them onto our top 10 all-time lists.

Each of these athletes have made a great impact on our program, making themselves known as some of the best in their event since our school opened in 2009. We look forward to witnessing their continued success as the season goes on.

Danny Tragarz, Senior, wins the 300 hurdles. Photo by James Huenink

Our Next Meet

Our next meet, the Falcon Relays Invitational, is coming up this Saturday March 18th with a 9:00 am start time, taking place just down the road at Torrey Pines High School. Being that this is an invitational, only a limited team of our athletes who qualified, will be competing at this event. Coaches will know who is entered by Tuesday 3/14 and can give those athletes a heads up. We will know who qualified by Friday and all athletes will know for sure if they are competing then.

We would love to have our snack bar open for all of our home meets! In order to do so we will need parent volunteers to run it. If you are available for any of our upcoming home meets please fill out this form to let us know your avaiability! We really appreciate your help.

House Keeping

Reminder that we practice from 4:10pm-6:10pm Monday-Friday and practice is mandatory. Failure to attended practice will result in athletes not competing in meets.

  • If your athlete has another activity (tutoring, a club, flute practice, etc.) that conflicts with practice time or any of our meets, please have them fill out an outside activity contract and bring it to practice so our head coach can sign off on it. Find our meet schedule here.

  • REMINDER - athletes should not sign up for the SAT on May 9th as it is the same day as our League Finals Meet.

Donate your used spikes to a Nighthawk in need!

  • If your athlete has spikes from last season that aren’t super torn up, they can use them again. If they are getting new spikes and don’t need their old ones, feel free to bring them to practice and we can share them with another nighthawk in need! Once your athlete gets their spikes, have them show their coach before wearing them at practice. We can help navigate each athletes needs.

Meet our Coaches

We are lucky to have a great team of coaches leading our student athletes and would love to introduce them to you. They have a variety of backgrounds and experience to share with your nighthawks. Follow us on instagram to keep up to date with our team and to meet more of our coaching staff!

Coach Ruby Mandell

Coach Mandell began coaching at Del Norte in the spring of 2022. She is a Nighthawk alumni herself (2012-2016). She competed in the hurdles, relays, long jump and sprints during her time as a Nighthawk. She holds multiple nighthawk school records and was back to back league champion in all four of her events in 2015/2016. Ruby went on to The University of California Santa Barbara to study Art and compete on their Division One Women’s Track & Field Team, class of 2020. She left Santa Barbara 7th all time in the women’s 400 meter hurdles. Ruby has had a love for track since her first race and is incredibly excited to be back at her former high school to help new athletes find the same passion for this sport.

Ruby Mandell
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