The Sedona Red Rock High School boys’ track and field team ran their first meet of the season on March 5 at Notre Dame Preparatory High School in Scottsdale.

Junior Chokyi Carstens won the 1,600 meters with a time of 4:52.09, finishing nearly three seconds ahead of runner-up Drake Hanley, a senior at Notre Dame Prep. Carstens also placed first in the 800 meters with a time of 2:09.04, with sophomore Khrystian Cordova coming in eighth with a time of 2:22.16 out of a field of 31 competitors.

“It feels pretty good to be a captain,” Ramon Betancort said. “Being a captain isn’t just about work ethic, it’s about compassion as well. It’s important to care about your teammates because it creates a positive environment. You want to be competitive, of course, but you don’t want to dislike each other on the team because that would make it hard to build chemistry. And when it comes to things like relays, if you don’t have chemistry, you’re going to struggle.”

Betancort said that he would be competing in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter dash events as well as the 4×400 relay and considered the 400 meters to be his stronger event. He added that he hoped to reduce his personal best for the event from 49 seconds to 47 seconds.

“My endurance has gone up a lot, and I’ve gotten a lot stronger as well,” Betancort said ahead of a second-place performance in the 400 meters in 51.60 seconds during the meet. “This year we’ve had a lot of throwers come out for the team. This is like the most throwers we’ve had in years, probably.”

Junior Steel Sturgeon took fourth place in the javelin throw with a distance of 38.56 meters and junior Vincent Smith- Shayawatt took sixth in the discus throw with a distance of 31.24 meters.

The Scorpions also hosted the Red Rock Small Invitational on Wednesday, March 12. Junior Ari Tedrick took second in pole vaulting with a height of 3.51 meters and Cordova took third with 3.05 meters. Tedrick also took fourth in the high jump with a height of 1.52 meters and freshman David Beltran came seventh with 1.42 meters.

Betancort took first place in the 400 meters at the March 12 meet with a time of 51.52, and Sturgeon came in 10th at 1:02.65. Sturgeon also came second in the javelin throw with a distance of 37.80 meters, Smith-Shayawatt took third with 35.33 meters and sophomore Christian Dominguez came fifth with 26.52 meters.

In the discus throw, Smith-Shayawatt took second with a distance of 33.55 meters with Sturgeon in third at 28.60 meters and freshman Miguel Villages in ninth with 25.93 meters.

Carstens posted a time of 4:46.70 for the 1600-meter event and came third in the 800 meters with a time of 2:08.50. Beltran took fifth in the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 20.56 seconds and freshman Ariel Bustos Landa came in eighth with 21.45 seconds. Senior Keldon Cain took fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a time of 24.79 seconds. Betancort took ninth place in the 100 meters with a time of 12.20 and Cain took 13th place with a time of 12.43.

“So I’m pretty happy after that first meet this season I was already hitting my best from last year, so only gets better from that, so I’m really excited about this season,” Cain said, adding that his goal would be to reduce his 200-meter time to less than 24 seconds and his 100-meter time to less than 12 seconds.

“I feel like our team’s quantity and variety have really grown this year. We have a lot of new incoming freshmen, and I’m really happy with the energy and team spirit, it’s much stronger than last year,” Cain said.

The Scorpions’ next home meet will be the Sedona Invitational on Saturday, April 5, at 9:30 a.m.

SRRHS Boys’ Track Roster