The Bay Valley Athletic League’s track and field athletes had a strong contingency at last weekend’s Sacramento Meet of Champions.

Athletes from Deer Valley, Heritage, Freedom and Pittsburg all traveled to Sacramento for the meet on Saturday. In total, BVAL athletes placed in the finals of 30 of the 79 events at the prestigious meet.

The largest groups were sent by Deer Valley and Heritage. The Wolverines placed in 13 events; the Patriots 11. Freedom placed athletes in seven finals while one athlete, senior shot-putter John Lacey, finished in the 12 position in that event. Heritage senior Alex Horncliff finished two spots ahead of him.

Deer Valley produced winners in three events. The team of seniors Raven Fox, Erica Wilson, Joy Gee and Darnella Jenkins claimed victory in the 4x400 girls relay with a time of 3:54.74, winning by more than 10 seconds.

Wilson also won the girls’ 300-meter hurdle event with a time of 43.79 and recorded a fourth-place performance in the girls’ 100-meter hurdles with a time of 14.54. Joining Wilson as an individual winner was teammate senior Jesse White, who won the boys’ 400-meter dash at 48.17.

Junior Shawn Simms also gave hope that Deer Valley’s speed next year will equal this season’s. Simms’ 11.35-second 100-meter race was good enough for fourth place in the boys’ event, and his 22.63 200-meter race in the boys’ division was good enough for third place. In that same race, Freedom junior Adrian Perez finished in seventh place with a time of 23.28.

The Patriots produced the only other winners when freshman Frank Kurtz, seniors Kruger Story Jr., Brandom Brum and junior Miguel Aguiar won the boys 4x400-meter varsity relay. In the 400-meter dash, Aguiar finished fifth; Kurtz 13th. Brum was seventh in the boys’ 800-meter run while fellow senior Eric Morford was eighth in the boys’ 1,600-meter race. Senior Alex Grant was the lone Heritage female, finishing fourth in the girls’ 800-meter race.

Heritage was especially strong in the field events, as senior Jacob Rounds finished seventh in the boys’ discus throw and fourth in the shot put. Junior Kyle Thacker placed seventh in the boy’s discus throw; senior Billy Eng fourth in the boys’ high jump.

Deer Valley senior Dariel Patton finished in fourth place in the boys’ 200-meter varsity race while the team of Andrew Hunte, Simms, Tajae Smith-White and Jesse White finished third in the 4x400-meter boys’ relay.

While the Freedom athletes didn’t win any events, they were consistently strong. Senior D’Amora Cooper took fourth in both the boys’ 100-meter hurdles and the boy’s long jump.

Senior Michael Kicenski tied for sixth in the boy’s high jump while senior Carmen Martinez finished sixth in the girls 3,200-meters. Sophomore Jordan Morgan finished 11th in the boys’ triple jump.