The indoor track and field team has improved this year in multiple ways, with new runners, new personal records, and increasing devotion and motivation to become faster. The girls’ team came in third place at the Commonwealth District Indoor Track and Field Championship on Feb. 7, while the boys tied for third place with Brooke Point.
The girls placed fourth at the Northwest Regional Championship on February 13th, while the boys took fifth place. Notable finishes include senior Allison Huschke, who placed first in the 3200 meter run, junior Ryan Thomas, who placed first in the 1600 meter run, and junior Miah Perch, who finished first in the long jump.
Coach Brian Nagel feels that the younger runners have shown improvement over the course of the season. “I’m impressed with the progress that our ninth and tenth grade athletes have made so far this year, to the point where they will be a factor in our overall success.”
According to senior captain Carolyn Pugh, every member of the team has the opportunity to strive to improve. “A cool thing about track is that even if you aren’t in the scoring part of the team, you can still see measurable improvement.”
Pugh added that, “the goal is always to get every runner to improve as much as they can over the course of the season, with as few injuries as possible.”
The team has faced a few difficulties this season. “Weather is our single biggest challenge. We practice outdoors, and some of our meets, including the District meet, are held outdoors. Also, traveling a long way to meets and the length of our meets are challenges as well,” Nagel said. “Our athletes need to be able to tune out these kinds of distractions.”
Another challenge was “losing a lot of good guys last year like Adam Visokay, Ben Deal, and James Villien,” senior captain Keith Montminy said. Montminy came in first place for the boys’ 3200 meter run at the second Albemarle Polar Bear Meet on Jan. 29.
“However, we have a much deeper squad this year with a bunch of guys that can have the best day at anytime,” Montminy said.
The AHS boys came in first in the 4×400 meter relay at the second Albemarle Polar Bear Meet. At the first Albemarle Polar Bear Meet on Dec. 3, the AHS girls placed first in the 4×200 meter relay.
One specific track and field event, pole vaulting, “is difficult because we have to travel to get coaching since we don’t specifically have a vaulting program here,” senior Casey Russell said. Russell came in first place in the girls’ pole vault at the first Fork Union Mini Invitational on Dec. 11.
Russell said vaulting “can also be really frustrating because it takes a while to improve and meets can be very disappointing when you don’t clear the next height. The most fun part of vaulting is when I clear a new height and I know I’m improving.”
The distance events also “take a lot of training and guts usually because they tend to be more of a mental challenge than anything else,” Montminy said.
According to sophomore Zach Gentry, when it comes to distance events, “it gets pretty grueling to have to keep going during a race when you know it hurts. It’s even more straining mentally to have to continue to push yourself to finish on empty. It’s exhausting,” he said.
The team has several goals for the season: “to have everyone improve as much as possible, to become a closer team, and to get as many people to qualify for Districts, Regionals, and States,” Russell said.
16 athletes qualified for the February 23rd State meet, including Russell in the girls’ pole vault and Thomas in the boys’ 1600 meter run.
At the District meet, Russell placed first in the girls’ pole vault. Thomas came in first in the boys’ 1,000 meter run, the boys’ 1,600 meter run, and the boys’ 500 meter dash, an especially impressive feat considering that all three races were back-to-back-to-back.
Russell also came in third place at the Regional meet.
The team is close-knit and spirited. “Like our coach Alec has been telling us, we have one the tightest-knit groups our team has had in a while,” Gentry said. “Our energy level has always been high, and we’re psyched every week to cheer each other on at every meet, in every event.”
Although track is a sport made up of a number of individual events, the athletes work on creating a sense of team. “Kids do things like cheer each other on during workouts and have spirit days, both of which create a sense of team,” Nagel said. “Everyone realizes that when we get to the District, Regional, and State meets that there is a team championship as well as individual ones. The team trophy is what goes on display at school, not individual awards.”
The team is working toward competing successfully in the State meet. “As a team, we’ll try to rack up as many points as possible in Districts, Regionals, and States, but it all depends on our guys getting to those meets and racing well,” Gentry said.
