The Fountain Hills High School track team traveled up north to the red rocks of Sedona for the annual Sedona Invitational on April 6.

The Sedona Invitational separates school track teams into upper and lower classmen for competition. FHHS boys varsity placed 15 out of 20 schools and the underclassmen team placed 16 out of 18.

Only girls varsity competed at the invitational and they placed 14 out of 19 schools.

Fountain Hills track has two events this week. The first is a meet today, April 10, at Desert Mountain and then the FHHS track team will compete at the Valley Christian Invitational on Saturday, April 13, beginning at 8 a.m.

Going into last week’s Sedona event, head coach Nick Goodman gave his team some pointers on how to compete at a higher elevation.

“Sedona is a couple of thousand feet higher in elevation than Fountain Hills and this elevation difference can have a negative effect of some athletes’ performance,” Goodman said. “Usually it’s the distance runners that feel it the most, as the sprint events are short enough that the higher altitude does not have a negative effect on performance. I instructed the students that if they did feel a shortness of breath during their event, to focus more on the effort of their arms and legs than their breathing rate.”

The Falcons took Goodman’s words to heart with many of the athletes accomplishing personal records during the invitational.

In the 400m race two seniors set a new best time for themselves. Will McGuire finished in 1:10.31 and Mateo Cottrill finished with a time of 1:11.32.

In the 800m event for the boys, senior Lucas Elwood finished sixth with a time of 2:06.13, a new personal record.

On the senior girls’ team Lauren Schultz dominated in the discus and shot put events.

In the shot put Schultz threw a distance of 25'9" and in the discus event Schultz took second with a throw of 95’.

The girls team was short one of their star runners during the Sedona meet, however.

Madison George was away in California representing Arizona at the Arcadia Invitational where she broke the school pole vaulting record (which she set earlier this season) with a jump of 12’7’’.