RIGHT ON TRACK MITCHELL OPENS NEW RUNNING COURSE.

Byline: Sharon Cotal Staff Writer

CANYON COUNTRY - First-grader Kaylee Crisp was confident Friday as she prepared for the first leg of a torch run to inaugurate the new track at Mitchell Community School.

After all, she's been running on the track every day at lunch and recess since finding it completed after returning from the holiday break.

She held the torch high, and after handing it off to the next runner, Kaylee, in her excitement, continued to run around the track with the other torch bearers.

Other runners followed suit, so that when student body President Rustin Warne carried the torch across the finish line, he was surrounded by all the representatives from the other classes as a crowd of students, teachers and parents cheered.

Inside the torch were letters from the students thanking the PTA for raising the $23,000 needed to build the track through fund-raisers held over the past year. Mitchell PTA co-President Janella Wigdor said the running track is phase two of a project that began with the installation of new playground equipment in 1999.

``The teachers had asked for a track because natural springs run underneath the school field and the kids would come in from P.E. all speckled with mud,'' Wigdor said, adding that the ditches and holes on the field also made it unsafe.

``We're very happy with the results, and I know the kids are ecstatic. They're out there running on it every day, and it's so much easier than running through the gopher holes,'' she said.

After the torch run, all of the students were invited to take a ceremonial lap around the cement-curbed course where six laps equal one mile. It was a rare occasion to have the entire student body of approximately 870 students in one place at one time, since split assemblies are usually held.

Principal Judy Heyn said she is grateful to the Mitchell PTA and looks

forward to starting a Mileage Club for the students to keep track of the miles they run between now and the last day of school in June. Students will earn foot-shaped tokens to keep on a key chain each time they complete five miles.

``We put a lot of emphasis on physical fitness here at Mitchell,'' Heyn said. ``I commend the PTA for doing something so major. Parents do so much for the school, so it's nice to have something tangible as evidence of their hard work.''

The track will be used for physical education classes and will be available to students during lunch and recess, Heyn said.

``Plus, I think it's good for the entire neighborhood, because parents and neighbors are welcome to use the track during off hours,'' she said.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Teachers and students run a lap on Mitchell Elementary's new running track Friday morning, built with PTA-raised funds.

(2 -- color) Mitchell Elementary School's new running track was opened Friday morning with a torch relay race by students.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News