On December 29, the Lady Hawks competed in their final meet of 2013, the PSAL Holiday Classic, at the Armory Track. The girls had top place finishers in the varsity pole vault event and the 1500 meter race walks. Senior captain Sophia Mahin closed the year with a gold medal in the varsity 1500 meter race walk. Junior Karen Su followed shortly thereafter in second. In the freshman 1500 meter race walk, Dulce Cervantes followed in Sophia’s footsteps with a gold medal. She, along with third place finisher freshman Maressa Cumbermack, set personal records. All freshmen placed in the top eight for the race walk, withDoris Zheng and Ada Liu also setting personal records. In the varsity pole vault, sophomore Kellie Zestanakis placed second out of twelve with a height of seven feet. She was the only THHS pole vaulter to clear the height at the meet. The Lady Hawks did not achieve similar success in the other field events such as the long jump and high jump. However, in the varsity 1000 meter run, junior Rythika Francis and sophomore Joanna Huo set personal records. Joanna, sophomore Yasmeen Ally, and juniors Gabrielle Gozdyra and Sarah Iqbal all placed in the top twenty. All in all, the girls felt as if they had ended 2013 on a positive note. Sophia reflected on what she called “a good year of track” saying, “There were many outstanding accomplishments from the girls, with many setting personal bests and qualifying for cities. All of the girls got along really well and the grade difference didn’t really stop us from getting close. We helped to push each other through workouts and really made it an enjoyable year.” She also pinpointed some things they could improve in the new year adding, “One thing that could have been better about track in 2013 were the times. While there were many amazing performances, our team has gotten slower than it has been in previous years. We sent no one to states this year for cross country, and where many varsity girls were this year would have placed them on junior varsity in previous years. In indoor and outdoor, we haven’t had performances as fast as they used to be. One thing we can try to work on is building more core and arm strength to power through races and trying to increase mileage to build a strong base. These small things will help us to perform even better in 2014 by making us stronger.”