The boys track and field team won the two-day Patriot District Tournament on May 13, with a score of 124 to Lake Braddock’s second place score of 98. The 4×800 meter relay team, in addition to winning by a margin of more than 10 seconds, set a district meet record and automatically qualified for the state meet with a time of 7:55.72. The relay team, comprised of team captains Michael Ejigu and Daniel Blasser, senior Yohan Calcuttawala and sophomore Ahmed Bile, also received first place on the first day of the regional meet on May 27.
The team’s ambitions do not end at the regional level. “Our goal for the regional meet is to win AHS’s first ever regional team title, and advance a lot of athletes individually to states,” said head coach Sean Miller. “I expect the 4×800, [junior] JP Jenkins [in the 110-meter hurdles] and Ahmed Bile [in the 800-meter run] to place high at states.”
Bile agrees, saying “I think we’re going to win the 4×800, and I’m going to be in the top three of the 800.”
The goals will not be achieved without a great deal of hard work. “[Recently, practice has been] less volume, more intensity. These have been the hardest practices in my four years of AHS, and they’re only going to get harder,” said Ejigu.
“Volume” is the level of mileage that an athlete runs, while “intensity” refers to the significantly shorter sprint workouts. “Practice has definitely been more intense, because we already had a foundation set,” said Blasser. Track teams begin training after an off-season period with a greater proportion of volume to intensity, to get the athletes back in shape.
The team seems to be confident about the state meet. “As of now we have JP Jenkins, Ahmed Bile, Daniel Blasser, Michael Ejigu and Yohan Calcuttawalla. We expect to have Jack Griffin, Nick Chuong, Ray Acker, Alhaji Bah, Joel Hoisington and Evan Griffin all making the state meet as well, if not more athletes,” said Miller.
Blasser agrees, saying “If we go in there and do our best, we’re the most qualified team to win states.” But Blasser notes that the intense late-season track practices are not all work and no play. “Practice has been great, because all of the girls are gone.”
