The wind is blowing, and the adrenaline is flowing, which is a regular occurrence for Shorewood’s Track and Field team. Track and Field consists of 3-hour outdoor meets with different events going all day long. There is distance, sprint, jumps, shotput, discus, pole vault, hurdles, and javelin. Track and Field requires different kinds of strength, exercise, and endurance that help you succeed in the sport. Each event requires the use of different muscles and different body movements. The team has been thriving this year – our classmates are placing in almost every event. “The team has been doing really well this year with both the boys and girls (…),” said junior Captain Lucy Eichelberger.
Eichelberger is the hurdle captain along with senior captain Jaden Marlow. But it’s not all about running fast, it’s also about keeping the pace and matching with each other while you run. That’s what distance runners do.
“We’re making some PRs (personal records and having fun relays,” said senior Captain Violet Koslowsky about the girls’ distance runners. There’s a reason they are working so well together this season. “We had a good group of girls training together in the off-season over the winter, which, coming into spring track, helped a lot,” Koslowsky said.
The boys’ distance has been beating their own personal and school records. “Max Billet just broke the school record in the mile,” said Eli Graves, junior Captain of distance. “We have also had some other school records broken recently, like the boys’ 4×100 team,” said Graves.
Track and Field can’t be Track and Field without the field. Junior captain Willa Watson said of this year’s jumpers: “We’ve been pretty good, were super cohesive and have a lot of positive vibes.” But outside the track, the throwers use entirely different muscles and entirely different movements. “Our group has grown this year with people who have prior years on this team improving a lot,” said Cooper Martinez, junior Captain of throwers. “Since it’s now the postseason, a lot of people are just focusing on improving themselves,” Martinez said.
This year, the team’s success has had many different reasons, one of them being the whole team coming together. “We’ve been able to bring the whole team together a little bit more,” said Graves. “In years past, there’s been a split between people who are dedicated to the sport and then other people who were just there to have fun and be with people. I feel like we have been able to bring that gap down.”
Another reason for succeeding this year has been the freshmen stepping up. “We’ve had a lot of new freshmen come up and take to the team really well,” Graves said.
For these runners, jumpers, and throwers, Track and Field is so much more than just being the best. It also means supporting your younger teammates to get to their best and inspiring them to continue to try. “When I was an underclassman, I used to always look up to the athletes who were older than me. They inspire me to be hard-working and an encouraging teammate,” said Eichelberger.
Being a sport that uses all the muscles, track and field also comes with a lot of injuries. “We’ve been having some issues with injuries and fueling,” Koslowsky said. Another roadblock has been the number of spots available at each meet. “We have a lot of people who are at the same level, and you can only enter so many people in each event. People have to do race-offs in the team because there are two people and only one spot,” Graves said.
For these captains, it’s now their turn to inspire the underclassmen and their peers to be the best, try their best, and continue to work hard just as their captains did for them. “Being a captain isn’t as much about leading people but more about being there for people and guiding them,” said Graves.
