LSHS track and field officially started their season on Friday, March 9. they kicked off . Their first track meet with scores on Thursday, March 14, 2024. After their first six meets, they were undefeated.
Viking boys varsity shut out the Monroe varsity boys 121-29, and the Viking girls varsity shut out the Monroe varsity girls 138-12. This is just their first meet, but their latest Varsity meet, against Kamiak, was on Thur, Mar 28, 2024. Unfortunately, Kamiak’s boys held the Viking boys 81-69, but the Viking girls beat Kamiak’s girls 114.5-35.5 leading the Vikings to another meet win.
LSHS Track and Field is known for its winning seasons after winning seasons, but what do these athletes do in practice to make this happen? There are certain warm-ups and skills that are practiced as a team, and there are more specific drills that focus on specific events the athletes are participating in at the next meet.
Junior Jayden Solorio-Valdovinos and sophomore Haedyn Barlow said that track has a different focus for practice every day of the week. For example, Tuesdays are 200m days, where they get into a group and have to run eight 200m sprints or one mile, in a certain amount of time.
Long jumpers have two kinds of practice days.
“If you’re long jump, we either have a ground day, which is where you practice your jumping in the sand and running to get to the box to jump. Or we’ll be making sure our form, the way we jump into the pit and the way we land is good and correct. We make sure we don’t injure ourselves during a meet on these days,” junior Kellie Tilghman said.
The jumping events require a lot of practice and technique. Long jumpers and triple jumpers have to be perfect on their timing with their approach so they don’t come up short or go beyond the line and foul..
“My very last [long] jump was 14 feet and 5 1⁄2 inches, so I made it to finals. In my first 2 jumps, I kept missing the box and scratching, but then on my 3rd jump I got 15 feet,” Tilghman said.
Competing in track is more than just running and jumping. It takes time, practice and patience to perfect their events. Athletes who participate in the field events have to be perfect in their timing to be good at what they do. And the runners have to stay on top of running on and off the track.
The athletes work hard during practice, and it shows during meets. They have been able to win back-to-back meets for a reason.
