By Theresa O’Connor
The middle school track and field team is in the middle of their season after a great start! This year the track and field team has a mixture of all grades with different abilities.
The coach this year is Coach Felicity Macdonald who was assistant coach last year and eventually became head coach. She also coached soccer for winter sports as well. “I coached track this year because I have a passion for running and I wish to bring about that same passion in others,” she said.
The middle school track and field team practices Monday and Wednesday each week. The captains this year are eighth grader Samantha Sayer and sixth grader, Joey Jones. Samantha has been on the track team for three years and she has stuck with it so long because it’s a very fun and diverse sport.
Joey Jones, who also does football and wrestling, joined track this year because, “it’s a fun-loving, hard-working sport. It also makes you a good athlete for other sports such as cross country and football.”
Their practices consist of a light jogging and afterwards stretching warm-up. Later, they divide up into groups based on events they are doing in meets and work on skills as well as techniques. The team is off to a great year with all of their hard work and effort.
On March 29, the MS track and field team had a meet at Benjamin Franklin High School. They did amazing and many personal records were set. Seventh grader Tamsin Hurlbut is new on the track team and the only girl who does the hurdles. She comments, “I decided to do hurdles because I did them once at practice and they seemed challenging so I wanted to push myself.”
Another new member of the track and field team is eighth grader Tatum Lemmons who notices she improved her times for races in meets every single time. Furthermore, Priscila Deal, who is in 7th grade, got third place in shot put, and 6th grader Delaney Lawson received second place in the 200-meter with a time of 30 seconds.
Thus, the team did a fantastic job as the enter the second half of their season. Make sure to go see one of their meets! Go Knights!