Track and field notebook

A year ago was about Yesenia Ortiz gaining confidence in her running ability.

This year, the Pasco senior knows what she's capable of. Now, it's all about fine-tuning and maximizing her potential with Star Track less than a month away.

Ortiz won three events at Wednesday's CBBN meet at Edgar Brown Stadium with Walla Walla and Eastmont -- the 100 and 400 meters and running a leg on the 4x400 that ran a season-best 4 minutes, 5.74 seconds.

The times in both her individual events -- 12.71 in the 100, 1:02.53 in the 400 -- were well off her season-bests, set at the Pasco Invite two weeks ago when Ortiz showed she was capable of competing with the state's best.

After running 12.61 in the 100 in prelims, she finished seventh in the finals, then followed that with a second-place finish in the 400 in a personal-best 58.84.

"The 400 has been going way better than I was expecting," she said. "I'm really happy because I'd been wanting to finally get into the 58s. I'm pretty satisfied with how my season is going, but I'm still hoping to improve some more."

Ortiz said her main goal is working on the backstretch portion of the 400, getting off to a faster start in order to shave another second or two off her time and make her competitive to not just qualify for state -- which she did a year ago -- but this time bring home hardware.

"My main thing is I need to get out harder in the beginning, because I'm feeling real strong toward the finish," she said.

The Bulldogs girls swept Wednesday's duals to improve to 9-2 on the season with one league meet left next week at Davis. They'll get an even bigger test Saturday when they travel to the prestigious Lake Washington Invite.

"It's so insane to see all these girls come out of nowhere," Ortiz said of her teammates, including senior Danielle Rovira (47.32 in the 300 hurdles Wednesday) and freshman Sadie Sparks.

"In the past, Richland has been the power, and with Southridge moving up to 4A, they're real good, too. To be able to compete with them is an awesome feeling. I'm real happy to be a part of this program."

Ortiz hopes next year to be part of Spokane Falls' program. She plans to attend there and study in the nursing program, and she responded to a questionnaire from the coaching staff.

In the boys' portion of Wednesday's meet, Walla Walla beat Pasco and Eastmont to remain unbeaten in league duals. The rest of the CBBN slate is today, with once-beaten boys teams Wenatchee and Southridge at a four-team meet at Kamiakin. ... This weekend is light on the invite schedule. The biggest in the region is the Keith Jewett Invitational in Ellensburg.