Sprinting through the chaos.

The track team had many struggles throughout the season but kept pushing through until the end.

After weeks of work and practice leading up to the state championship, the track team gave it their all to finish the season. Though they had practices to prepare for the season, thay had faced many setbacks and obstacles to overcome that had an effect on their final performance. Struggles such as injuries, lack of preparation through the season and players not showing up to practices and meets. In the end, the team did their best to compete at their highest through the conditions they were in.

In the state finals, we had a team of sophomores Brooklyn Clements, Norah Poppell, Emma Ekbundit and junior Holly Higgs running in the 4x100m relay earned 14th place; in the girls 1600m run, Alex Egan placed 24th; for the boys 1600m, senior Tyler Bass placed 20th; in the Unified 2x50m relay, seniors Tyler Bass and John Hoover earned 10th place; for the 4x200m relay, a team of senior Jenna Tipton, sophomore Emma Ekbundit, sophomore Brooklyn Clements and junior Holly Higgs placed 19th; junior Mackenzie Cornell placed 19th in the girls 400m dash; and for the last event of the day, a team of junior Jack Gentry, senior Tyler Bass, senior Isaiah Malone and Owen Mueller placed 21st.

In the season leading up to state, the team had multiple injuries and a lack of team recovery, which led to more injuries. “The biggest thing was injuries, we had a lot of teammates have to take time off due to various injuries,” Gentry said. In a sport like track and field, there is always a high risk of injury, especially when athletes are training at their hardest to prepare for the state championship. This is why it’s important to take time to recover after high intensity practices Although some athletes feel that there was a lack of recovery time throughout the season. 

Tyler Bass, senior and long distance runner had been a strong player throughout the season until he had sustained an injury that set him back, along with the rest of the team. “I had issues with my hamstring in late march and it made me sit out for a little bit and lower the workload I was doing in practice,” Bass said. This was rough for not only Bass, but the team due to him having to sit out and miss out on practice because of this injury. “It made me feel like I was starting from square one,” Bass said. This may have had an impact on the team’s final performance at the state meet.

Another struggle the team had to overcome was the lack of qualifiers in the state championship. There were multiple athletes who were running in more than one event for the meet, which could be a disadvantage due to how close events could be on the schedule and how little time the athlete would have to recover from the previous event. This adds not just physical but mental stress on the athlete on top of the pressure to perform well before their race. “We didnt have many people showing up so many people would have to run four events per meet,” Higgs said. Part of this issue was that athletes didn’t show up in the first place and this issue was consistent throughout the season.

Despite all of these challenges, the team kept working hard, practicing and keeping a positive moral as the season concluded. They didn’t let the struggles they faced prevent them from giving it their all and finishing strong. “I expected us to get at least top twenty and that is what we did, my relay teams worked their butts off,” Higgs said. The team performed at their highest and with the strong and dedicated players they could only improve for the future.