The Sedona Red Rock High School track and field team hosted its first home meet of the season with the Red Rock Small Invite on Thursday, March 21, after the print deadline.

“It’s a good team.” Sasha Barrera, a freshman discus thrower and shot putter, said. “We are quite close, we cheer for each other all the time, whether it be running or throwing. I find that very comforting when you’re competing because you have the whole team with you.”

The meet will be followed by the Sedona Red Rock Invitational on Saturday, April 6, starting at 9:30 a.m.

“Arabella Licher is ranked second state right now for triple-jump,” Head Coach Sean Eicher said on Friday, March 8. “Aubrie Doyle, who is a sophomore, skipped a grade, should be technically a freshman, just broke her first sub-six minute and she is ranked, I believe, right in the top 10 for state for the mile. We’ve a lot of kids getting personal records, state, so we’re competing very well.”

Eicher took over the program from Harry Schneider three years ago and the number of athletes has grown substantially. There were around 20 members when Eicher started; this year, there are 45. Eicher is also a physical education teacher and credits his constant interactions with the students with driving the team’s growth.

“My expectations for this year, I told them we’re not just here to be have a team anymore, we’re here to compete, and everyone [is] going to be getting better, and I’m setting expectations for every single kid on what I would like to see them get better in,” Eicher said. “So by the time we’re at state we should have, out of the 45 athletes, about 20-something should go to state and compete.”

Eicher said his coaching philosophy to achieve that goal requires holding the students accountable and keeping them consistently at practice.

“I’m all about having fun, but they need to be in serious mode when they’re there and prepare to get better,” Eicher said. “I’ve not been at a school yet where kids can miss practice and still be able to compete. And I think that’s one of the issues for our sports programs as well. And I know there’s a lot of kids that work. But I think just like all of us, if you want to be somewhere, you’re going to be committed, you got to be there. You got to figure out a way to do both things. Maybe you have to go to work after practice, you go to work on the weekends.”

Eicher, who has run the Boston Marathon and coaches long-distance running and sprinting, said he feels confident in the diverse experiences of the team’s coaches.

“Coach Harry Schneider loves track and he is so passionate about it, not just the sport but the kids themselves. He volunteers his hours every day,” Eicher said. “We have Will Eaton, who is ranked number one … for pole vault [in Division I of the National Junior College Athletic Association]. Then obviously Lew Hoyt, who competed, who was a sub for the Olympics [in 1964 and 1968] … Then we also have [Assistant] Coach Victoria Lindsey, who comes down from Flagstaff most days, and she’s working with throwers and she just does it because she loves the kids, too. She helped with basketball … So a lot of talent and knowledge from our coaches and that’s why our program [is well] built and is really coming together.”

“They’re doing pretty good so far. Definitely a lot better than our last year’s team, and I think we’ll do pretty good [and] maybe set some new school records,” Chokyi Carstens said.

Stone Sturgeon, senior
Nia Trujillo, senior
Estefani Arce-Cruz, senior
Arabella Licher, senior
Leila Bradley, senior
Heidi Romero, senior
Anai Avila, senior
Luis Beltran, senior
Skyla Bird, senior
Carlos Gonzalez, senior
Joan Diaz, senior
Madeline Badorek, senior
Isaac Montes De Oca, senior
Michael Granger, senior
Gabi Curi, senior
Citlali Perez Perez, senior
Ramon Betancourt, junior
Sierra Williams, junior
Amy Brefeld, junior
Aiden Stimple, junior
Nickolas Herman, junior
Yemayasil Guadarrama, junior
Chokyi Carstens, sophomore
Ari Tedrick, sophomore
Jacqueline Kwitkin, sophomore
Kelley Arias, sophomore
Sheila Montes, sophomore
Karol Laija, sophomore
Dalila Pedroza, sophomore
Aubrie Doyle, sophomore
Ben Metzger, sophomore
Steel Sturgeon, sophomore
Vincent Smith, sophomore
Jade Kuhn, sophomore
Filip Atanasovski, sophomore
Ryan Pfaff, sophomore
Aldo Nino Rodriguez, sophomore
Jaden Tracy, sophomore
Keldon Cain, freshman
Sasha Barrera, freshman
Elias Fletcher, freshman
Khrystian Cordova, freshman
Rubin Lyn Hovermill, freshman
Shayden Cohens, freshman
Avery Raczynski, freshman
Sunny Flores, freshman
Head Coach: Sean Eicher
Assistant Coach: Victoria Lindsey
Volunteer Coaches: Harry Schneider, Lew Hoyt, Will Eaton, Zach Wheat