The OH track season has started, and the first few track meets of the season are officially underway. The boys’ first track meet was Thurs., Feb. 13, at Addison Trail High School.
“[The] track meet on Thursday went pretty good. We had a lot of athletes getting first place, [and] a lot of them got new personal records. You can see the talent in the new people this year,” said OH senior track athlete Michael Wallace.
The first track meet prepared both new and experienced OH athletes for the coming season, allowing the team to find areas for growth. By their second meet just two days later at Hononegah High School, the boys team had already noticed an improvement.
“Saturday was awesome, it was a very competitive meet. Already, we had a long-distance runner, Bo Breed. He qualified for state in the mile. So, we’re really impressed by that, and our coach is very confident that more people will qualify for state later on,” said Wallace.
That same day, the girls team had their first meet at OH, then a second on Feb. 22 at Glenbard South High School.
“I think it was a good learning experience for everyone,” said OH senior track athlete Addison Richter.
“We found spots that need to be improved for everyone and what we need to work on more in practice. And I mean, that’s all we could hope for at our first meet, finding where our strengths and weaknesses are and seeing where we can go from there,” Richter said.
The first track meet is always important for figuring out how to move forward with the season, but the boys’ team had the chance to prepare for more competitive meets during the Addison Trail meet due to a lack of fully automatic timing (FAT timing).
At the first track meet, “they don’t actually do FAT timing, which is where they use a camera and get an actual time. They use hand timing, so it’s more of an unofficial track meet since none of the results can really be entered in,” said OH senior and Track athlete Nathan Barry.
Having an unofficial meet like this helps to give the athletes a better idea of what to expect during their more competitive meets, but it also lets them practice maintaining a good mental head space while running, which can be one of the hardest parts of competing.
Richter mentioned that her coach always tells the team that everyone would run faster if they were able to remove the top six inches of their heads because of how influential their head space is while running.
With the new season comes new concerns and stressors, such as the pressure to live up to the fullest potential and not let down the team, which can affect an athlete’s performance for better or worse.
“Compared to last year, we have a very small team from what I’ve seen, so I feel like it’s definitely going to be challenging to do as well as we did last year, but I think that with the team we have, we’re going to do really well,” said OH sophomore and first-year track athlete Bayleigh Hickman.
Despite the challenge, the OH track team has high hopes for the season and is prepared for any obstacles that might get in their way. However, none of it would be possible without the athletes lifting each other up through it all.
“What makes us motivated to try harder every day is the atmosphere and the teammates. It’s just a fun atmosphere where all the people are supportive of each other and like they’re competitive, but they’re friendly competitive,” said Barry.
I am a senior and this is my first year as a student journalist for 42Fifty. I currently play the trumpet in the OHS Marching Band and I am a member of BIONIC as well. I am excited for learning and gaining experience in journalism this year. You can contact me by emailing 42Fifty@sd308.org and putting my name in the subject line. We welcome comments on our articles and feedback on our publication!
My name is Jessica VanVooren, and this is my second year on the 42Fifty publication staff. I am a senior in high school. I am a part of the OH National Honors Society (NHS), the National Art Honors Society (NAHS), and the Quill & Scroll (Journalism) Honors Society.
