On April 1, the Igloo Invitational took place at Mansion Park. It is an annual track and field invitational the team holds. This is always the first invitational the track team competes at each season. This is the forty-sixth year the Igloo was held. No scores were kept from this invitational.

Head coaches Michael Adams and Paula Foreman prepared the athletes.

“Coach Adams and coach Foreman have been training us in pre-season with many endurance and spring workouts, as well as Coach Luciano who has been helping us out with the job to prepare our physical abilities,” sophomore Branson Adams said.

Junior Hailey Kravetz prepared for the Igloo with the boys’ team.

“I’ve been training with the boys [team] so I can get faster times and to run faster. I’ve been getting a lot of hurdle drills in,” Kravetz said.

Foreman expected the athletes to come prepared and ready to be competitive since it is the team’s home invitational.

“We want our athletes to be competitive. The first month of practice or first three to four weeks is spent on preparing our athletes, not just for the Igloo, but for all of our needs,” Foreman said.

The invitational is always held, no matter what the weather is like due to the tradition.

“I think there’s a lot of tradition in the Igloo. You just never know what kind of weather you’re going to get. It could be decent weather or no good temperatures, but more often than not, we can have snow and that means we could have snow in the rain and cold,” Foreman said.

Although in the past cold weather was  a concern, this year the temperatures were near 70.  However, the impending storms and wind warnings were a concern.  Pole vaulters in particular needed to pay attention to the workers at those events.  The rain and extreme winds held off until approximately 3 p.m, which impacted some of the athletes performances.

“Despite the weather I was still able to get pretty good times. I got second in the 100 meter hurdles, and I got first in the 300 meter hurdles. The meet got called after the hurdles were over, so we didn’t get around to the four by four,” Kravetz said.

“It was uneventful because it got canceled halfway through. As a whole I think the team did very well. I think there is improvement, and I am excited to see that over the course of the season,” B. Adams said. 

“Pole vaulting with high winds is hard. It was spiral winds the whole time. We had to change our pits like halfway through, and it sucked,” freshman Colbie Billetdeaux said.

Coaches hoped the Igloo would show the team where the athletes are at with their abilities, so they can start training the athletes to be prepared for Districts and States.

“The Igloo is the first invitational. It’s a good way to see where our kids are, where they’re starting out at the beginning of the season and how they are compared to other kids or other athletes. We don’t know that we do anything special in preparing them other than our usual training and preparation for the season. The Igloo just happens to be our first big meet of the season,” Foreman said.

Meet director Steve Rhodes had hopes of it giving other teams ideas of what they have as a line up for their dual meets.

“Coaches love it because there is no pressure, and they can put their athletes in multiple events to see what they can do. They can enter multiple relay teams as well. It gives them an idea of what they have lineup wise going into their league and dual meet seasons,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes does all the coordinating and logistical preparations for the team.

“We’re fortunate to have Rhodes coordinating and doing all the logistical preparations for the meet. I want to make sure that he gets credited for doing a lot of work because he does all the organization for ordering t-shirts, the coordination of teams and whatnot. So we’re fortunate to have Rhodes still involved with that,” Foreman said.

B. Adams does the triple jump, long jump, four by one and four by four relays. Kravetz competed in 100 meter hurdles, 300 meter hurdles and the four by four relay.

“I was in the four by one, four by four and triple high jump. I got top three in the triple jump last year and both of our relays, so I’m hoping that we can keep that for me again this year,” B. Adams said.

B. Adams is excited for what the team will succeed in this upcoming season.

“I’m really excited to see how the team does this year, and how we all progress and get better throughout the course of this season,” B. Adams said.

The Igloo helped B. Adams and Kravetz know where they are at this season and how they can improve in their events.

“I was able to focus on my steps and see where I lacked. In the 300 meter hurdles, my steps were off for the hurdles on the curb so I’ll be able to work on those in practice and hopefully be able to drop time,” Kravetz said.

“I ran the four by one and I felt like I wasn’t going as hard as I could’ve even though I knew I could go harder. It’s just very interesting to see how the inexperience I had this season compares to the end of the last season because we become a lot stronger and more in the track mindset at that point in time. I’m just not there yet this season, but I should be there by Districts,” B. Adams said.