After a semester of off season workouts and training, track and field athletes are preparing for future meets. They laced up their sneakers for their home meet, and are now setting up their blocks to compete in the Northwest Texan Relays on Friday, March 2 at Texan Stadium.
The team’s second meet, the Haltom Relays, was scheduled for Feb. 22 at Old Birdville Stadium was cancelled do to poor weather conditions. For the full meet schedule click here.
With the team’s first and home meet, the Falcon Fast Invitational on Feb. 17, under their belt, athletes are excited to compete again in future meets. Despite the weather and the cancellation of the field events, teammates came out to support the runners, one of which was discus thrower and junior Lauren Hodges.
“When I found out the field events were cancelled, I was upset, but I didn’t let that keep me from staying home,” Hodges revealed. “Even though my event was cancelled, I needed to support my friends. Even though I don’t know every single person on the track team, I still cheered them on and gave them a little encouragement to strive for their best.”
Being cheered on from the sidelines was sophomore Jackie Kiuna. Kiuna ran the 4x800m for the first time in the home meet.
“[Running in the 4x800m race] was definitely a great learning experience and it was a lot of fun,” Kiuna said. “I felt really good about the effort I put.”
When she was not competing, junior Tamera Smith let loose with her teammates and had some fun.
“It was really fun being with my teammates and competing, and the meet was fun overall,” Smith commented. “We had a speaker, so we just listened to music and cheered our team on. The first meet was kind of a bonding experience.”
Head coach of the track team, Coach Dan Strong, has been preparing for the track season by making sure the athletes are working hard.
“In track, there are 17 events, and each of them take very different skill sets and very specific instruction,” Strong stated. “We’ve prepared for the season by getting as many kids to come out for the sports as we can, we’ve plugged them in to an event group, and we started working hard.”
Last year at the district track meet in Weatherford, the track teams ran off with second and third place. The athletes have been training to compete again ever since.
“Many individuals have the goal to make it to a specific level of competition. Some want to make varsity. Others want to win a medal at the state meet,” Strong explained. “As a team, as always, a district championship is the goal.”
Students excited for the track season have created a track and field Twitter account @tchstandf to provide inspiration and inform their teammates about practice and meet times. Junior and pole vaulter Megan Chormicle is one of many on the track team that runs the Twitter account.
“It’s really cool to document our progress as a team and look back on it months later and see how far we’ve come,” Chormicle said. “I’m planning on not only competing, but going to the meets to take pictures. The Twitter account is where I can showcase those photos.”
Overall, the track and field athletes are ready to compete as a team once the weather improves. The unique sport combines many different athletes from many different teams to form a family.
“Track is so much different than any other sport in many ways. Each event is different. We have kids who are involved in many different sports,” Strong said. “Where we finish is so much more important than where we start. Improvement is our focus.”
