Overcoming its first major hurdle of the season, the Diamond Bar High School track and field girls team placed first at the team’s only home meet this year.

The Lady Brahmas won by 12 points, grabbing a victory over South Hills, while the boys lost by 11.

“Part of it is we’re trying to keep our kids healthy; a lot of kids, they do other sports so they keep getting injured,” head coach Malinalli Cooke said. “For example, for the distance team specifically, four of our top boys didn’t run…A lot of our top kids are pretty much in good shape already, it’s just trying to get them ready to compete.”

Teams are ranked by a point system, and points are awarded based both on athlete performance and overall performance relative to opponents. Meets generally only have two teams competing.

However the Brahmas had a tri-meet on April 4 against the Ayala Bulldogs and Glendora Tartans, coming out with losses against both teams.

“We take the highest scores, and depending on how other the schools do against Ayala, and how we do against Ayala, it’s going to be compiled over time, so we won’t know basically until the end,” Cooke said. “This school got creamed by Ayala by so many points, and this school not that much, so they rank them that way.”

The Claremont Wolfpack ran past the Brahmas on April 18, finishing 91.5-44.5 on the boys’ side and 107.66-28.33 on the girls’ side.

As for field events, Cooke says the team has been improving due to new coaching staff and more extensive training.

The long jump and triple jump events have suffered due to lack of a dedicated coach, but other events, such as throwing and pole vault, have seen marked improvement. Cooke cites junior Sam Blazek and sophomore Kai Smith as one of the best throwers and high jumpers, respectively.

“As a team, we’re not as good as we were in past years, but we definitely have some star runners,” senior sprints captain Katrina He said. “As for me, I’ve had a lot more fun this year because I’m closer with my teammates.”