Senior Tyler Spence patiently waits at the starting line until the official starts the race by firing his starter pistol. Spence explodes from his starting stance with a green baton and his hunger to win.
“It feels great to work so hard for something and accomplish it,” Spence said.
The track four by eight is an event where there are four runners on a team. Each runner runs 800 meters or two laps around the track before passing the baton to their teammate so they can run their two laps.
“Breaking the four by eight record was pretty good,” senior Laurence Blocker said. “Plus I like to see a record get broken, and we have to congratulate the runners and tell them that we have to work harder to beat their own records.”
Breaking records for any sport can be a momentous occasion because it takes a lot of work and preparation to get close. Some high school athletes have spent months and others years perfecting their talents and conditioning their bodies for the conditions of their sport.
“The preparation was hard and always tough,” Blocker said, “You know trying to work and accomplish something that we put a lot of time into on weekends and late nights but we got the results and we broke the records.”
Building a strong team from a coaching standpoint really depends on the team that has been built thus far. Departing seniors and upcoming seniors have to encourage each other and future runners in the program to continue breaking records and leave a legacy that will be with the school for a long period of time.
Coach Will Stevens was a talented track runner in high school and now he is a Prince George coach taking over the job from Dan Rivera who coached the team last year. Stepping into the coaching position is easy for Stevens due to his experience as an athlete.
“I made it my point that I wanted kids to leave here with legacies,” Stevens said. “That means that they can leave and come back to see their name on the wall and know that they did something here that no one else could do at the time.”
Passing the baton from generation to generation is an annual event in all sports due to seniors graduating. The departing seniors have been preparing the team to live on when they graduate by mentoring other runners and sharing experience with the knowledge they have collected over the years.
“It’s beneficial for both me and the future runners,” Blocker said. “Me trying to keep my leadership and set an example for the kids, or younger people should I say, and for them to look up and see what they need to and try to exceed even myself and some of the other track kids.”
Track and field is a sport that many high school athletes call home and aspire to be professionals in. The will not forget the experiences that they have had when they graduate and go off to start their lives but some day will come back to view the legacy they have left.
