The outdoor track and field team has had an increasingly winning run this season, most recently against Orange County on May 8, where the girls and boys won first, and at Western Albemarle Quad Meet on April 24 where both the girls’ and boys’ squads took second place.
The team has consistently placed highly in various relay races. At both the William Monroe Invitational on April 20 and the Albemarle Dual Meet on April 4 the girls took first place for the 4×100 meter relay. Additionally at the William Monroe Invitational, the boys placed first in two relay races: the 4×100 meter relay and the 4×800 meter relay.
Senior captain Aaron Elder, who competes in 4×800 meter relay, the 1600 meter, and the 4×400 meter relay, said that the most challenging part of his events is “being dedicated for the entire season. After running for all of high school I’ve learned that running the race is not just about game day, it involves how much sleep you get, diet, and how much you work when no one is looking.”
Though a challenging sport, senior captain James Oh, who runs the 110 and 300 hurdles, loves track because [of] “the pureness of it. Pure power, pure technique, pure speed. There are no fancy plays and just a few strategies. Track and field mostly depends on who can throw the farthest, run the fastest, or jump the highest.
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His events are difficult because “running with an obstruction in your way is foreign to the human body,” Oh said. “Typically, we want to go around things. Getting over the initial fear was the hardest part about hurdling.”
According to Elder, this year “the team is working towards developing better leaders and getting everyone to stay focused in the middle of the season where it counts.”
Senior pole-vaulter and captain Casey Russell said one of the team’s goals was to “take as many kids to Regionals and States as possible and to just get as much out of the season as possible.
“The team has come a long way in the sense that kids are dropping times and improving like crazy which is a great success,” she added.
According to coach Tony Franklin, the team “has improved a lot by coming to practice and working hard and believing in our system.”
Russell said that the team has gained new runners and jumpers, who “have come really far and improved a lot over the past couple of weeks, which is always awesome to see.”
She vaults in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, and while Russell said that the sport stays “pretty constant,” throughout the year, now because the meets are outdoors, “we have to deal with wind, rain, hot, cold, et cetera.”
According to Elder, the team is having “better companionship between the sprinters and distance, which at times can seem like separate teams due to the nature of the events, but we are working towards one big happy team.”
Because various team members are on different schedules, the entire team has not been at “full force” at a meet so far this season, according to Elder. “However, during championship season we are looking to compete as a team, as well as send as many kids to States as possible,” he said.
Despite differences between sprinters and distance runners and dissimilar schedules, the team is close. “These guys are my brothers and we have had a lot of fun times,” Elder said.
Oh said that the team spirit is “fantastic. Before the sprinters break off to do anything, we huddle together and say a one word phrase with one fist in the air to get pumped up.”
He added that “the tightness of the bonds that have been built comes from the countless hours we put in to make ourselves physically better for the team. Track is not seen as a team sport, but we score points as a team, and our team definitely is a team.”
The team captains provide leadership by trying to “set a strong example for the younger members and do whatever needs to be done for the team…which is what I try to do. I’m really excited to be a captain,” Russell said.
As a captain, Oh tries to “lead [team members] by example, not so much with talking.”
“This is my first year with this team, but the amount of talent here is tremendous,” Oh said. “A lot of the younger kids here have serious potential and I expect to be hearing Albemarle’s name a lot in the track community in the coming years.”
