Davis High athletes shine at Halden Invitational

By Sophia Young,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The annual Davis High Halden Invitational, a track meet that DHS has been hosting since the 60s, is back after a two year absence due to COVID-19

“This is an old meet from before I was even alive,” head coach Spencer Elliott said. 

“It’s the first time we’ve gotten to have the meet since 2019,” assistant coach Tim Groth said.

But even upon its return, the meet had a couple of hurdles to overcome before the athletes could compete. 

Due to a schoolwide evacuation the day before, the meet was not able to be set up and prepared according to plan. 

“But we, you know, compensated for that. We got here a little early and some of our athletes and parents stepped up to help make it happen, so we got it all done and it’s been a great meet,” Elliott said. 

The meet ran from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m on March 12 and included 29 teams from all over the region. 

“We’ve never done it this early in the year. We weren’t sure how many people were going to show up, but there was a good amount of kids and a lot of excellent performances,” Groth said.

The DHS track program has always been strong, and the Halden Invitational has been a good way for DHS to put the program on display in front of a large audience. 

Six DHS athletes stole the show, putting up strong performances despite coming back from injuries or participating in their events for the first time. 

These athletes, senior Dean Fulks, senior Isabel Garcia, junior Norah Dulaney, senior Will Siemens, senior Ray Oldham and senior Zach Ayers, are all spotlighted below. 

Dean Fulks, captain of DHS’ horizontal jumps (triple jump and long jump), set a personal record of 38 feet 8 inches in the triple jump at the Halden Invitational. 

“I thought I was going to do worse, but I was just kind of psyching myself out and so even when I thought it was going to be bad, it turned out to be pretty good,” Fulks said. 

Fulks hopes to jump at least 40 feet this season and hopefully even make 42 feet. 

“I scratched an even better one (triple jump) so I know I can do better. I’m just improving slowly and it feels good, so I’m happy about that,” Fulks said. 

Fulks does not plan on jumping in college, but is certain that the skills he has learned from his track experiences will stick with him. 

“Things such as resilience, you know, practices aren’t easy all the time and it’s good to know that I have the ability to motivate myself and motivate others and just be on a team,” Fulks said.

Ever since senior Isabel Garcia joined the DHS track and field team as a freshman, she has shined as both an athlete and as a leader of the team. 

“She always works hard and is one of our team leaders, so in addition to running fast she’s also a supportive teammate,” Elliott said.

As a freshman, Garcia won the freshman/sophomore 100 meter dash at the Halden Invitational in 2019. “I ran 13 (seconds) flat,” Garcia said. 

Garcia began running track in seventh grade, and, “since then, I’ve progressively been getting better and making new friends along the way so yeah, it’s pretty fun.” 

She plans on continuing her track career at San Francisco State next year.

“I love track, love running. Hopefully, I continue to improve and get better there,” Garcia said.

At the Halden Invitational, junior Norah Dulaney won the women’s varsity 800 meter race and set a personal record of 5:21 in the 1600 meter.

“I’m really happy, I PRed in my first event by five seconds and then in my second event, I won and I got a backpack, so I’m pretty juiced about that,” Dulaney said. 

Groth, one of the distance coaches, sees this as the beginning of a successful season for Dulaney. 

“I’m really proud of her and I think we’ll look back on this as another stepping stone in what’s going to be an awesome year for her,” Groth said. 

Dulaney started running cross country her freshman year, and saw great success during those races. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was not able to participate in track and field until this year.

She hopes to qualify for the nationally ranked Arcadia Invitational. 

Although senior Will Siemens did not set a personal record at the Halden Invitational, he was proud of how much he has improved mentally as a pole vaulter.

“Today was a big day mentally, because I had some of the worst jumps in my life, but I was just somehow getting over my prior PR,” Siemens said. 

After coming back from an ankle injury that lasted abount a month and half, Siemens noticed an major improvement is his running mechanics and form.

“It was just kind of like a reset and refresh,” Siemens said. 

With a new run and new poles, Siemens hopes to jump 16 feet 4 inches this season.

“I just need to get used to them and, you know, go a lot higher,” Siemens said. 

“He’s one of our team leaders and he’s well respected as a senior on our team. He works really hard on the vault,” Elliott said. “I know he has goals of jumping even higher and he will.”

As a current leader of the state in the high jump, senior Ray Oldham took first for high jump at the Halden Invitational with a jump of 6 feet 3 inches.

“It wasn’t a great day I did win but I mean the weather out here was not peak,  (not) what you’d want. It was windy today, it was rough, but I think it went fine,” Oldham said.

Oldham hopes to continue leading the state this season and win the state championships. At some point, he hopes to break the DHS school record of 6 feet 9 inches, only one inch off from his personal record of 6 feet 8 inches. “I’m only off by an inch,” Oldham said.

Oldham started high jumping in seventh grade, but remembers not being very good at it then. “But it was always very fun for me so I kept doing it,” Oldham said.

In his junior year, Oldham started to take jumping very seriously, reaching 6 feet 6 inches by the end of the year. 

This past year, senior Zach Ayers had one of the most successful cross country seasons in DHS history, making it to the Nike Outdoor Nationals in November of 2021. 

However, following the meet, Ayers struggled with a foot injury, forcing the past couple months to be focused on recovery. 

“I’ve been trying to work my way back from an injury which I’m still kind of dealing with. Hopefully, I can get that figured out by the end of this season and get back to my full training and competing,” Ayers said. 

He was not at full strength for this meet, but nevertheless, Ayers raced brilliantly, finishing second overall in both the 1600 meter and the 3200 meter.

“I thought he did a great job today, you know, no PRs but he raced like a champ,” Groth said.