With new talent on the team, Annandale girls varsity track prepares for their season and looks to win their district consisting of Mount Vernon, West Potomac, T.C.. Williams, and Hayfield.

“I’m preparing by running on my own and being consistent before official practices start,” junior Vitalina Fuentes said.

To raise money, the track program is using a new system so that all necessities for meets this season can be financially covered for. This year, each athlete will need to sell 20 raffle tickets which can earn a variety of prizes for an incentive.  Coach Harris, the 400 meter and 800 meter coach, believes that Annandale certainly has the skill to win the district. His only concerns are the distance events such as the 600 meter run and the 4×400 meter relay.

“If we can find a way to win the mid to long distance events, then we have a clear shot at winning the conference which is our ultimate goal,” Harris said.

In order to build confidence to have the momentum to win “practice and repetition is key,” coach Harris said. “We will attend more invitationals this year so that our sprinters can start to edge out other sprinters from different schools in the district.” The coaches and the students all have one goal as a team; however, the individual runners have goals of their own.

“My goal for the season is to get near or even break my PR time which is a 5:52 mile,” Fuentes said.

“Our distance runners will also be able to build up confidence to win the district by running and practicing their event often in real race conditions,” coach Harris added.

To help the distance runners improve to contribute success to Annandale track this season, coach Harris will implement more long track workouts to help the distance runners to build endurance to eventually better their times.