With March in the rearview and April in full swing, girls’ and boys’ track are well underway. The teams have competed in both invitationals and duel meets.
The team’s head coach, Michael Adams, has been coaching the sport for 25 years, and regained the head coach position after taking a step back in years prior.
“My favorite part of coaching is interacting with the athletes,” Adams said. “They keep you young and those connections are something I really value. Practice can be crazy at times with the number of athletes we have, but our coaching staff is one of the best in Pa, so it runs pretty smoothly.”
Some athletes have noticed a difference in this year’s coaching versus others.
“I have noticed that we’ve been running our practices a bit differently,” senior sprinter Hannah Owulade said. “We start out by running our warm up lap, which is 400 meters, stretch out in a group, then break off into our event groups for some fast paced 25-yard work to further warm up and then go off to work on technique based off of the event you’re doing.”
There have also been changes amongst the team’s athletes with the loss of the class of 2025’s seniors.
“This season is different because we don’t really have any seniors,” junior distance runner Seth Lieb said. “Losing them made me realize that I have to step it up, not only as a runner, but also as a figure for my other teammates. It’s a big shift from last year because I don’t have anybody to look up to, or sometimes I don’t have somebody to talk about running with, so it has made me more independent.”
Still, some things haven’t changed, most notably: the weather.
“[The season] started out pretty cold, making it difficult, but now that it is heading into April we get into our bigger meets so there’s only more room for improvement,” junior distance runner Ashlyn Noce said.
In their most recent invitational, Altoona’s Igloo, the girls placed first.
“The Igloo went well,” Owulade said. “It was beyond freezing cold, but I was able to further lower my hurdle time by a whole second and jump close to my PR in the triple jump.”
“The Igloo Invite gave our team a lot of opportunity to put up some good performances in the early season; we had many individuals who placed, earning a ribbon,” Noce said. “For me personally, it was pretty good and allowed me to get back into the outdoor season after a long indoor season.”
Meanwhile, the boys placed fifth.
“We did very good,” Leib said. “Our 4×8 team actually won, and we don’t normally, so that was good. We had a lot of highlights [in other events], and a lot of people competed very well.”
“I thought the Igloo went pretty well,” senior sprinter Colin Etters said. “The team showed a lot of effort and enthusiasm, I felt.”
With May quickly approaching, many track athletes find themselves thinking about what they’d like to achieve by the end of the season.
“My goals are to win Districts and PR from last year,” Etters said.
“My goal for this season is to place at states in my events,” Owulade said. “I know I have the ability within me to achieve this, and I’m committed to putting in the work to make it happen.”
As the season progresses, the athletes and the team as a whole continue to work toward their goals.
“We won the Mid-Penn last year on both the girls and guys side, and are looking to do the same this year,” Adams said.
