Jayettes golf returns to home course, Saenz tops track times

The Bluejays and Jayettes are approaching the home stretch this season. (Note: Events covered April 24-30)

The Jayettes found themselves teeing off from their own course for the first time this season on April 24 where they were situated between North Polk and West Central Valley in the triangular meet.

With a score of 218, Perry started trending back up from their previous outing with a five-stroke improvement that started on the individual level with Addison Huntington taking six swings off her previous score, as she settled into fourth place with a score of 51. North Polk's top trio were the only better performers of the day. Kaylee Wuebker was next on the roll call with 54.

Perry's team score at the April 24 home meet was not registered due to a lack of participants, but Caden Heck was on hand to hit a 45 on the nine holes to mark his best score of the season.

In their final regular season meeting before the conference and state qualifiers start up in the next couple of weeks, the Jayettes were positioned in sixth place at the Boone track meet on Thursday. Two days earlier, the team found itself in eighth place at ADM. But regardless of overall standing, Taryn Nehring continued to make strides in the sprint events.

Over in Adel, the sophomore standout posted her best times in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes with new times of 13.66 and 28.55 seconds to place eighth and ninth, respectively.

The Bluejays were in stiff competition at both the Carlisle meet on April 25 and the Boone Invitational two days later, falling to the bottom ranks in both meets. Even so, Perry still gained some traction thanks to Renzo Saenz who had his best day of his career on Thursday.

Going up against a flight of Woodward-Granger runners that also set personal records, Saenz's 23.45 seconds in the 200-meter dash landed him in second place at Boone. He was even better in the 100, marking a time of 11.40 seconds for first place.

A shutout loss on April 24 to a stiff Nevada team (9-2) was a bump in the road for the Jayettes who tore off their third win in the past four games the next day against Greene County (0-7) to officially top last year's win total.

Holding the Rams scoreless in a 4-0 loss, Perry's defense played some of its smoothest all season and allowed just one shot to even touch goalie Karina Perez's hands. And on the opposite side of the field, two of Jennifer Ramos’ three tries hit the Rams’ net. She's now tied with Pauline Galindo for the team lead with three goals this season. Galindo scored once and had one assist against the Rams and Mia Munoz rounded out the scoresheet with the fourth goal.

Running into perhaps the toughest part of this season's schedule, the Bluejays were caught in a three-game slide with a string of three losses this week.

Things were as close as possible against Nevada (8-3) on April 24 in a 1-0 loss to a team that has routinely scored 10 goals in games. Greene County (8-1) boasts similar ability and escaped the Bluejays’ attempt at an upset win, with Perry falling 3-2 on a pair of goals from Jonathan and Anthony Chavez. But the wheels started to rattle on Saturday against Ankeny Centennial (5-4) in an 8-1 loss that featured a lone goal from freshman Tony Sanchez.