The American River College Track & Field team made the quick trip to Sacramento State for the 2025 Hornet Invite on March 21-22. The meet consisted of about 20 schools from all over the map. ARC competed against other junior colleges from California. They also competed against high level four year schools from nationwide like Boise State, and local four years such as San Jose State, Stanford and California.
“We aren’t going to compete against just junior colleges, I think we’d be doing our athletes a disservice by doing that,” said Matthew Airola, head coach of ARC Men’s Track & Field .
The Beavers got the meet started on Friday in the women’s hammer throw and men’s javelin. Freshman Vanessa Aguirre Sanchez posted 32.99 meters, Freshman Madison Shirley Boudreaux tallied 30.88 meters and freshman Areyana Francies came in at 28.86 meters. Each respectively placed in the top 40 of the hammer throw.
Sophomore Tyrone Brown led the way for ARC in Javelin, posting 47.85 meters placing in the top 10 overall.
Sophomore Brian Shine finished 8th in the men’s triple jump, posting a score of 13.66 meters. Allison Canafee competed in the women’s triple jump, but she was one of 11 athletes to foul and not score.
Freshman Kira Comfort got the track side of things started, placing 2nd in the fifth section of the Women’s 400m hurdles. Comfort posted a time of 1:08.49, placing in the top 30 overall. Freshman Emiliano Silva led the way in the Men’s 400m Hurdles, grabbing a 1:01.73 which placed him 35th overall.
Sophomore Brian Fackert and freshman Tyler Farnworth ran neck and neck with one another in the Men’s 800m. Fackert ran a 1:56.00 narrowly beating Farnworth who ran a 1:56.01, both were able to place in the top 20 overall with those times.
On Saturday, the Beavers were faced with the challenge of trying to battle weather. It was overcast for the majority of the meet, with off and on light showers before the skies cleared up and the sun came out towards the end of the day.
Saturday held the majority of the big events such as the 100m Hurdles, 100m dash, the relays, along with multiple finals for the field events.
Comfort continued her campaign by running a 16.14 in the Women’s 100m Hurdles. She was the fastest of all junior college runners in that event, she placed 45th among everyone.
In the 100m dash Sophomore Isaiah Bickham was the only beaver under 11 seconds. Bickham was a 10.89 which placed him 22nd overall.
ARC wrapped up the weekend with the Men’s 4x400m relay with the A team consisting of Ian Ronald, Santiago Martinez, Trey Lofton and Jeremiah Archie-Desmangles. ARC ranked 17th overall, and 3rd among junior colleges.
“This is also the time of year we are wanting to start seeing marks, and seeing kids hitting things they need to hit for the end of the year,” said Melanie Cleland, women’s track & field head coach.
