Full Speed Ahead: Freshmen Changing Girls Track Team
by Kacie Herring | Class of 2020
The 2017 girls track season may be one for the history books.
The team will consist of a younger, bigger, more versatile group of athletes, which has second-year coach Braydon Rogers excited.
Last year’s track team was just nine girls. With one-third more players on this year’s team, runners can participate in more events and have more subs.
The team isn’t just gaining numbers, they’re gaining talent. Seven freshman cross country runners who have exhibited unparalleled performance for their age are joining the team, including freshman Jenna Twait, who finished 4th at this year’s state meet.
Rogers believes that the most important character traits that a track runner should have are discipline and enthusiasm. He believes runners must make themselves run every day and be enthusiastic about the sport.
These traits perfectly describe Twait and the freshman cross country runners. Such discipline and enthusiasm showed when
they won 2nd overall in Class 1A at the 2016 State Cross
Country meet as a team.
Though the relays and some sprints might suffer due to the loss of 2016 graduates Morgan Ingamells, who ran the 100 meter dash, and Megan Widner, who ran the 400, 800, 1500, and 3000 meter runs, senior Madison Sallee hopes that the incoming freshmen will fill the gap. That should definitely be the case.
Last year the junior high’s 4x800 relay, consisting of now freshman cross country runners Morgan Hansen, Sophie Selenke, and Twait along with fellow freshman Naomi Henderson, went undefeated all season.
The freshman and Coach Rogers think they’re ready to take on their biggest opponent this season: the stopwatch.
Rogers said, “Track is as pure of a sport as there is out there because it’s just you against the clock.”
For the 2017 girls track team, it’s time.