Vallecitos' Rossi, Franco win at track and field meet

The seven small elementary schools in northern San Diego County and southern Riverside County participate in tournaments throughout the year with each school hosting a different sport. Those schools competed in a track and field meet May 3 at Julian High School, and the first-place winners included Vallecitos Elementary School seventh-graders Kelsey Rossi and Ivan Franco.

Rossi won three events while finishing second in a fourth competition. Franco had two first-place marks and was also on the Vikings' 4x100 relay team which finished third in that race.

Vallecitos placed third as a team, behind Julian Elementary School and Hamilton Elementary School of Anza.

"I'm very satisfied with how well they did," said Vallecitos coach Ray Hanbeck. "We only took 13 kids to the meet. The other teams had 20 kids or more. I really did not think we were going to make it."

The team finish was for boys and girls combined, but separate races were held for eighth-grade boys, eighth-grade girls, seventh-grade boys, and seventh-grade girls. Rossi's sister, Julia, was the only Vallecitos eighth-grader so the Vikings had no contestants in the eighth-grade boys races."It was a big surprise," said Hanbeck of Vallecitos' third-place finish. "We had some kids that really stepped up."

The meet contested the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, the 400-meter run, the mile run, the 4x100 relay, the long jump, and the high jump. The sprint races were not timed.

Vallecitos placed in all but two events despite having only a week of practice. Rain postponed the softball tournament at Warner Elementary School from April 19 to April 26, and the team was only able to practice sprinting, jumping, and pacing techniques (for distance races) three times prior to the May 3 meet.

The Rossi sisters took the top two positions in the girls long jump with Kelsey Rossi achieving a distance of 12'6" and Julia Rossi obtaining a mark of 12'2". Kelsey Rossi cleared 3'9" to win the girls high jump and also won her 200-meter dash race. Her time of 6:37 in the mile gave her second place.

Franco cleared 4'3" to win the boys high jump with Vallecitos sixth-grader Edgar Ortega placing second at 3'11". Franco also won the seventh-grade boys 200-meter dash. Franco, Ortega, sixth-grader Rodrigo Anaya, and sixth-grader Armando Yanez comprised the third-place 4x100 quartet. Ortega added a second-place time of 6:01 in the mile.

"We have such a small team and we were so young, it bodes well for next year," Hanbeck said.