Girls’ 4×2 team sets new record
Courtesy of Altoona track's Twitter
Brooke Long, Maura Kiser, Dyamond Johnson and Darrian Berkheimer pose for a picture after breaking the school 4×2 record.
January 16, 2020
On Jan. 9 the indoor track team traveled to State College for their first meet of the season. 18 teams competed in the invitational. During the meet, the girls’ 4×200 team finished first with a time of 1:49:88. The team included sophomore Brooke Long, freshman Maura Kiser, sophomore Dyamond Johnson and junior Darrian Berkheimer.
The team is lead by head coaches Mike Adams and Paula Foreman.
“We definitely weren’t expecting this from their first meet. We knew they would be really good but we weren’t expecting them to break the record this early in the season,” Adams said.
The meet was early in the season.
“After we raced, my team and I didn’t know we broke the record until our coach came and told us. When he did we were so happy and started cheering and hugging,” Kiser said.
“We were all really excited after we heard that we broke the record. We were jumping up and down and running around we were so happy and proud of each other,” Berkheimer said.
The girls placed first in the 4×200 event.
“We hope to qualify for the state meet for the 4×200 because our time was only a second off from qualifying,” Berkheimer said.
Unlike outdoor, indoor track has many challenges that the team has to overcome.
“It’s very different than running outdoors, and since it’s a winter sport we practice inside the school. So it’s more closed in and we have limited space to run because of the construction, but it’s still doable,” Johnson said.
The team practices weekly to prepare for upcoming meets.
“They’re a hard-working and a great group of girls. We’re looking forward to seeing what else they will do considering they’re all underclassmen,” Adams said.
Considering that I just went out and ran my hardest without even thinking about beating the record and ended up beating it just goes to show all the things that I and my team can accomplish this year. I can’t wait to see what we do next!
— sophomore Maura Kiser
The team’s season lasts until March.
“This achievement definitely set the bar high for the season, and now we just have to work to keep getting better times from here until the season is over,” Long said
Many of the indoor track athletes also do spring track.
“I would like to achieve more of my goals during the indoor season and plan on moving forward to thrive during the outdoor season this spring,” Johnson said.
