On a freezing cold day, the Staples girls’ track team was successful in the second FCIAC qualifier meet on Jan. 4th, where they competed against New Canaan, Greenwich, Trumbull, Brien McMahon, Westhill, Danbury, and Fairfield Ludlowe.
Despite being on holiday break and having a snow day, head coach Jesse McCray believes the team did well.
“There was not too much of a drop off in their running skills,” McCray said.
McCray mentioned that the team has been doing well in the sprint relays, shotput, and are experienced in the 600 meter races and anything longer than 600 meters. McCray also said that the team is young in sprinting.
In the first heat of the 4 x 240 relay, Julia Agardh ’17 had a strong start, and Olivia Weiner ’15 held a strong second in the last leg of the relay behind Danbury. Bridget van Dorsten ’15 mainted a large lead in the second heat of the 4 x 240 relay.
Staples’ biggest rivals were Greenwich, Danbury, and Trumbell, who is the fourth best high school in the division.
Rank in the division is determined based on a point system depending on the number of wins a team gets. For example, if a team gets first place in one race, they get the most number of points. Whichever school gets the most points (the most wins in all the meets combined) gets first in the division, and the school that gets the second highest number of points gets second in the division, and so on.
As a team, Staples made second and fourth in the 4 X 240 meter relay and second and seventh in the 4 X 400 meter relay.
Sophia Corde ’15, who ran the 50 meter dash, 300 meter race, and pole vaulted for the event, believes that one of the easier races is the 50 meter dash as opposed to the 300 meter, in which you have to maintain a sprint-like speed for the entire race.
Amelia Tavarnesi ’15 ran the mile and described it as just going “around and around,”especially after running around the track ten times.
Tyler Byrd ’15 disagrees with Corde’s statement about the easiness of the 50 meter dash.
“If you don’t have a fast start, it’s hard to build up speed quickly because it’s such a short distance,” Byrd said.
In spite of the difficulty and stress of actually running in the race, the stress of waiting for your heat to run can be one of the most stressful components of a race for a runner. As Byrd described it, it’s lots of waiting and getting up early to meet up with your team before the meet starts.Corde said that one of the biggest worries before a race is wondering how well you will perform, and how you will compare to other teammates running in the same heat as you.
The third FCIAC qualifier will be on Jan. 11th held at Staples. Come on out and support the girls’ track team.
