After a season of accomplishments and intense races, the Glendale High School track and field team organized a track banquet to close off the season. This event was held at the high school on May 17 to celebrate the team’s accomplishments. The banquet allowed track members to exchange gifts with one another and pass out awards as a final closing ceremony. Awards included the MVP award and the one- or two-year Varsity letters.

Clark senior Nataly Vardanyan attended the banquet as the only senior track member on the team who attends Clark Magnet High School and not Glendale High School. “It was super fun,” Vardanyan said. “I won an athletic excellence award and an award for my fourth Varsity letter!”

The track banquet came right after the CIF competitions ended, where the team had to train and condition all season to even qualify for the competition, let alone win. In total, there were only seven on the Glendale track team who qualified, Vardanyan being the only from Clark.

The CIF race is a track championship competition for schools from the entire Southern California region. Depending on how teams succeed, the elite teams get invited to the CIF championships in an attempt to race to victory.

From Glendale High School, seven athletes qualified for the CIF championships, one of which was senior Natalie Bastagian. “The CIFs were an incredible opportunity and such a fun experience for all of us,” Bastagian said. “I am very proud of all of us for making it this far, especially since it was my last CIF competition.”

There were many races taking place at the competition this year. In the 4×4 race, which consists of four girls running 400m races each, Bastagian and her team placed number 23 out of 36 teams with a time of 4:11.