It is springtime, which means rain, sunshine, LOTS of wind, birds chirping, and the smell of fresh cut grass. It also means the start of track season, one of my personal favorite seasons!
The Lady Kings have put in numerous hours of hard work this preseason on the track and in the weight room, and their hard work is paying off. The Lady Kings have already completed three meets, and we have been off to a tremendous start – winning all three. So far, the Lady Kings have won their way against the Pioneer Panthers, Twin Lakes Indians, and the Carroll Cougars- beating all of them by double digits!
This year, over twenty girls came out for track and field. Seeing how there were only about ten girls that came out my freshman year, twenty is a much larger amount. Track and field seems to be gaining the attention it deserves, and more and more girls are joining each season.
There are noticeably talented athletes in each event this year. In the sprints group, Anna Hedrick and Kiley Silcox come to mind as strong sprinters this year. In the mid-distance group, our foreign exchange students from Spain, Marina Melian Cabrera and Paula Pons Barca, have excelled in their first-ever year participating in track. When asked about her experience running so far, Paula answered, “My first experience running track has been really good. I like the team because they make practice fun, and they motivate me to come every day.” Paula seems to be enjoying this new sport. Track can be challenging sometimes, so I asked Marina what she finds most challenging in track, and she said, “I think dealing with the weather during practices and meets is the most challenging. During the winter season, we didn’t have to worry about that, but now that we practice outside, it is always too cold, or too hot, or too windy.” For runners from Indiana, we adapt to the weather, but the Spanish exchange students are not quite used to the Indiana weather.
In the distance group, Hope Rush, Gracie Spicer, and Anna Roeske have all had strong showings in their first three meets. Hope Rush is one of the few athletes who ran multiple indoor meets. Indoor season is a little different than outdoor, and usually more challenging than outdoor because there is more competition. However, Rush impressively managed to run a personal record, or PR, in her second-ever indoor meet. Some people do not enjoy indoor, so when asked how she felt running a PR. Rush responded with “I felt really good running a PR in my first indoor meet. It showed me that my off-season and pre-season work paid off going into track season. I really like indoor, and I am very excited to do it next year.” Everyone is excited to see how Hope performs the rest of the season.
In the jumps group, Mackenzie Weaver is our best high jumper, and Anna Hedrick is our best long jumper. Brystalin Gillem is an overall strong athlete in mid-distance, high jump, and long jump. When the Courier asked what she was looking forward to this season, she answered, “I am looking forward to getting faster in the 400 so we can break the record again.” Gillem is one of the four athletes on the quick 4×4 relay squad that managed to break the school record last year.
In hurdles, Presley Johnson and Lauren Tocco stand out. Recently, in the Carroll meet, junior Lauren Tocco took quite the fall on the second hurdle during her 300-meter hurdle race and STILL won!! I asked Lauren how many times she has fallen in hurdles before, and she said, “The only other time I have fallen was in seventh grade during a 100m hurdles race! I am not quite sure what went wrong on that second hurdle last week, but it definitely left its mark both physically and mentally!” That was definitely the highlight of the meet.
Lastly, in the throws, the underclassmen take the cake this year, with strong athletes including Rachel Garcia Zavala, Madelyn Hillis, Alli Bandelier, and our foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic, Karolina Rerichova.
The Lady Kings are once again coached by Megan Mannering, but with a new addition, her husband, head football coach Clayton Mannering, as he is the throws coach this year. We welcome back Assistant coaches Claire King and Kelsey Sheffer for another year as well.
Coach Megan Mannering is very excited about the upcoming season. As she stated, “The season has started off strong! I feel we had a very strong base with better weather and great efforts in February and March. We also got the team to an indoor meet, which has been a goal of mine since taking over five years ago. In the short indoor season, Anna Hedrick, Brystalin Gillem, Hope Rush, and Aftin Griffin broke our indoor 4×400 meter relay and Distance Medley Relay records.” Personally, I love indoor meets, and this is the first time in my career that we have brought the whole team to an indoor meet, so it was very exciting to be with other teammates at these meets.
When Coach Mannering was asked about goals for this season, she said,” Outdoor season has started off well, with great efforts and performances. I am looking forward to seeing how the team does overall. Track and field has an individual side, so there are lots of little stories going on, in addition to the greater story of the whole team. I am hopeful to win county this year and do well at the TRC conference and sectional level as we did last year.” All of these goals are definitely realistic, as we have had a strong start to the season.
The Lady Kings are already almost halfway through the quick track season, but personally, I am looking forward to seeing how we can finish as a team. With one final track season to go, I am hopeful this will be a spectacular year for us. Fans can support the Lady Kings this Saturday at Hamilton Heights for one of the largest, most exciting meets of the season at the Big Orange Invitational. Field events begin at 10 a.m., and running events are to follow. Let’s go, Lady Kings!
