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by Kaylee Anderson
On May 12-13 the NS track team had 15 scoring places for the boys and 20 for the girls in the region tournament at Union High School. Athletes in all events achieved personal records, qualifying for state. Fifteen athletes will be performing in individual events at state making a total of 24 including the runners in the relays.
“We placed a lot of kids in region and they scored points,” said head track coach Scott Butler. “The scoring positions in track is one through eight in any event. A lot of those kids that scored those points obviously had big PRs, but so did the kids that did not score, like Tezra Fisk who dropped five whole seconds off of his 800 and Jerry Jones had PRs in everything that he ran. Our distance girls ran the fastest times of the year at region. It’s super gratifying because we see that the training really works.”
In almost every case, individuals and relay teams competed and qualified for state in their events.
“I expected to do well in the mile, but I took 4th in the 800 and I am going to state. I’m glad we all qualified, all of the distance girls,” said junior Rachael Jones.
Heading into the region tournament, the expectation was to perform well, but no one, not even the kids themselves, thought that the team would exceed the expectations by this far.
“The team surprised the coaches, the parents and maybe even themselves. I think we came out of region placing a lot better than we were expecting to,’’ Butler said. “We as coaches spend a lot of time looking at where each athlete is ranked not only at where they are at in the region but also where they are at in the state. Based on the rankings of where we were, we ended up a lot better than what we thought we were going to. It was an incredibly good region meet for us.”
Even amongst a team full of state qualifiers some individuals made achievements at region that stood out above the rest.
“It sounds kind of cruel to say,” Butler said. “but none of us were expecting Morgan Bowles to end up as region champion in the 300 hurdles. He just kept getting better, and better and better. He ran super well in the trials and then in the finals he just exploded and beat all of those kids he had never beaten before and ended up as region champion.”
Despite competing with an injury, Bowles was able to run and take first in the 300 hurdles.
“It was kind of sad because I didn’t get to run all of the races I wanted to because of my injury,” said junior Morgan Bowles, “but with the help of my coaches, Ben Robison, and physical therapist, I was able to run a couple of them and ended up taking first in the 300 and qualified for state for all of them. I didn’t think I’d be able to run and then I didn’t think I would win the 300 hurdles. I thought I’d come in like second or third.”
Some runners competed expecting to do well in one race but were instead surprised when they did better in others.
“It went really well,” said senior Tamsin Stewart. “I got second in the mile and our 4 x 400 qualified for state. I did not expect to do that good, especially in the mile because I have been training all season for the 800 and they put me in the mile and I did really good.”
Consistently putting in the work at practice put the track athletes in the position to achieve their personal bests.
“I would just congratulate every one of the kids who was dedicated who came out and trained consistently every day,” Butler said. “It’s not easy. Those workouts are pretty tough and all of them who stuck it out to the end saw huge improvements. They are much faster, they jump higher, they jump further, they throw further. I just congratulate all of them for their dedication.”
For many of the track athletes this will be their first taste of what a state meet is like.
“We have a really young team,” Butler said. “I am excited for all of these younger runners to really get a taste of what it is like to be state runners. Just having the experience of running on that big stage is exciting for me to watch the kids excel and be able to perform there.”
With the majority of the track members being freshman and sophomores, the potential is there to have a strong contending team in the years to come.
“If the good core of kids that we have now comes out again next year and invites some of the kids that are wandering the halls doing nothing in the spring, we could have a very very good team,” Butler said. “The boys and the girls team could contend for a region championship if we get more people out. The talent is there.”
