With two solid first places in the 55 meter and the 300 meter dashes, by seniors Alex Ellison and Austin Chavez respectively, along with a first in the 4×200 meter relay, the boys track team was able to place fourth in the Patriot District Championship on Feb. 9.
“Everyone did really well in the 4×200 [meter] relay. Austin and Alex ran really fast,” sophomore Nathan Hogye said.
Hogye, who was a member of the 4×200 relay, also qualified for regionals in the 500 meter dash with a fourth place. Hogye just missed qualifying for regionals last year when he placed seventh in the same event.
“I think I did well, I trained hard all season and my performance reflected how hard I trained,” Hogye said.
The 55 meter dash seems to be AHS’s strength. Ellison, sophomore Bernard Andoh, who placed second, and junior Sansi Jalloh, who placed sixth, will all be running this event next weekend at regionals.
Last season, only seniors qualified for regionals in field events, leaving a huge hole in the team when they graduated, however junior Kyle Peich filled the missing piece and placed third and fourth in the triple jump and long jump respectively.
Only three athletes from the girls team will be advancing to regionals, but unfortunately none of the relays qualified.
“We lost two key runners before the districts, so our relays were off and didn’t place as high as they could have,” senior Connie Tran said.
Tran ran the 4×400 relay along with Shartel, Anderson and junior Melissa Pratt, but will not be moving on to regionals.
“Personally, I gave it all I could, considering the fact that I’m still injured, so I’m satisfied even though I didn’t make it to regionals,” Tran said.
Junior Melissa Pratt who qualified in the 55 meter hurdles was the only girl to place in an individual event and will be moving on to regionals. Junior Margaret Njomo will be competing in the shot put at regionals along with junior Katherine Ross, who will be running the 55 meter dash, as both of them automatically qualified for regionals, but did not place in the top six at districts.
“I was really nervous before my race because I was running against one of the best hurdlers in the state, but it pushed me to run faster and I managed to drop five tenths of a second, which is a lot for 55m hurdles,” Pratt said.
Pratt automatically qualified in the preliminary round of districts after running the event in a time of 9.28 second.
“I was really excited afterwards when I found out that I qualified [for regionals] since I missed it last year,” Pratt said.
The Northern Region Championship will be held Feb. 16 at George Mason University.
“My goal for regionals is just to perform and do my best,” Hogye said.
