By Danielle Smith

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With weeks of rigorous practices behind them, the girls and boys JV track and field teams competed in the western divisionals on April 3. The girls successfully took home first, while the boys placed fifth.

“I am very proud of what both the JV and varsity teams have been able to do so far this year. I know the best is still to come and that they will be ready to tackle whatever challenges we face the last four weeks of the season,” said Head Coach Dan Johnson.

Preparing for the championships required a different training regimen in comparison to the start of preseason. “Preseason track meets have a very different preparation theme,” Freshman Jadon Morales said. “We went through some of our more difficult training and we tapered for about a week, where we went off and practiced on our own. We did a lot of tough intervals and we also did a lot of running through Mauka and places like that so that we could prepare ourselves for the faster speeds.”

Despite their rigorous preparation, the athletes still had to overcome their nerves preceding the competition. “I was really, really nervous and I was breaking down and crying the night before the meet. But it was a good feeling because we were training for this moment for so long,” said Freshman Katie Hashimoto. Johnson added, “I think they were all just excited to race a higher level of competition than they were used to.”

The effort put into the competition was not only from the students, but their coaches as well. “The coaches were always there to help us and they were there for every practice, telling us how to run our events and motivating us and inspiring us to do our best,” said Hashimoto. Morales added, “They would call out times to us to help us pace ourselves and they would help us to know when we need to adjust throughout the meet.”

Their practice and determination pushed the girls team to the end. “Going into the meet it looked like they would win JV westerns easily. All of their times and marks were a little better than expected though so that was a nice surprise,” said Johnson. “After every practice we’re tired and I get it, because we train hard and we work really hard,” Hashimoto added. “So yeah, I really think we earned it.”

While placing fifth wasn’t ideal, the boys were able to acknowledge what they could have done differently and look forward to getting better in the next meet. “I wish we had prepared better through the preseason so that when it came time to prepare for the big meets, it would have been easier for us,” said Morales. “We didn’t win the meet, but we did pretty good.” Johnson added, “As far as the boys go, we knew we had an uphill battle since they do not have as much depth as the girls. They still came out and competed hard, a lot of them set personal bests which is all the coaches can ask for.”

While the students supported the varsity team in their western divisionals, which were held on April 11, they also began training once again for their own Oahu Interscholastic Association championships on April 18.