Sitting down for a seemingly endless amount of time, waiting for your race to come may make track seem like a monotonous sport. Despite this fact, however, the AHS track team has dominated the competition in its last two meets. The irregular weather last week had no effect on track’s schedule or the runners’ performance.
In their second Wednesday meet of the season, held on April 6, AHS competed against South County, Robert E. Lee and the meet’s host, W.T. Woodson. The AHS boys, continuing their success, won or placed in the majority of the meet’s events. Major winners included sophomore Alex Ellison in the 200m race and senior JP Jenkins in the 110m hurdles. Both teams also took home high finishes in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
During the meet, the JV track team filled heat after heat of runners, particularly with respect to the JV girls. In the last four heats of almost every event, AHS competitors made up a majority of the runners. Some heats ended up being all AHS JV girls, a rare occurrence at track meets.
While the Wednesday meet was a competition for both varsity and JV runners, the invitational held on Friday and Saturday was solely for varsity competitors.
“Personally, I like the larger meets better because you get to run against a variety of people so you have more competition and can measure yourself against better athletes,” freshman Katherine Ross said.
Undeterred by the pouring rain, the team participated in the Northern Virginia Invitational hosted by Edison High School, which included participants from 30 Northern Virginia teams.
“In our invitational, our boys got first place out of 30 and girls came home with lots of medals so it was great,” Head Coach Sean Miller said. The top six finishers in each individual event and the top three relay teams received a medal.
Combined, the AHS boys and girls track teams managed to rack up a total of 16 medals, some of which came from field events. Senior JP Jenkins led the Atoms with four medals for both hurdles and running. Jenkins won the 110m hurdles, received second in the high jump and finished fourth in both the long jump and the 100m sprint. Sophomore Alex Ellison brought home two medals, both for sixth place, in the 100m and the 200m sprints. Also competing in the 200m was junior Roland Andoh, who placed second. Junior Ahmed Bile won the 1600m event.
The AHS boys were also very successful in the field events, bringing home a medal in every event. Senior Joel Hoisington won the shot-put competition, while junior Monte McCarthy placed fifth in the long jump and junior Richard Maku placed third in the high jump. In discus, senior Nick Dumbia placed second and junior Ian Griffin came in fourth.
“From what I saw at the meet, [boys] will win Regionals. We won and placed in all events so our chances look good,” Hoisington said.
Unfortunately, the girls team did not finish top six in any individual races or field events. However, the girls relay team did place second in the 4x100m relay. Meanwhile, the boys 4x100m and 4x400m relay teams took first in their respective races.
“I like watching team members compete when you know how hard they’ve worked,” sophomore Yanira Guerra said.
Students often dismiss track as a waste of time and a boring sport. However, in the mind of the Atoms track and field team, it is neither. Track meets are exciting, easy to understand and fun to watch. The team’s success shows how hard they have been working at practice despite the gloomy weather. Rain or shine, it is almost always guaranteed that the team will be outside practicing, running as hard as they can in preparation for their next meet.
