Cheering erupts as they round the final bend.
Spikes clack as maroon-clad runners fly across the red pathway set before them, the finish line drawing nearer. Their teammates lean on the fence separating the pavement from the track, cheering and clapping for them as they race by.
On the insides of the track, jumpers seem to take flight, and throwers send discuses and shot puts soaring. The area is full of students from every background, all working together as a team. Middle schoolers and high schoolers cheer alongside each other, some of whom are not only battling to beat their race times, but battling the final stretch of the IB.
“I think having sports makes the IB in school actually a bit easier, because it adds more structure to my life,” Seth, a senior, explains. “Instead of having all that free time to procrastinate, I’m doing a sport instead.”
Emma, a junior, agrees. “I always need to be doing a sport, because I always need to have something to fill my time so that I have better time management,” she describes. This is her first year running track, and currently, she competes in shot put, the 200, the 100, the 4 by 100, and the 300-meter hurdles.
“I really enjoy hurdles because my mother did it in high school,” she says, “So she’s a role model for me, and I want to be like her.” Not only that, but Emma appreciates the challenge the 300 hurdles presents, as it adds the test of hurdles to an already difficult distance. She also loves competing in shot put, and says to have grown to enjoy each of the events she runs in.
Seth, on the other hand, has been running track for four years now, and competes in the longer distance events, like the 800, 1600, and 3200 meters. He says this love of running started back in middle school, when his class would compete in the PACER test.
“In middle school, every time we did the beep test, I would be looking forward to it,” he recounted. “That’s when I knew I was a distance runner.”
Alexander, a junior, also joined track from a distance running background. “I tried every single other sport there was, and in ninth grade, I found cross country,” he details, “and that was super fun and the same coach and the same team were all participating in track, so I decided to give it a try, and it turned out to also be great.”
Now, he competes in the hurdle events, as well as high jump, long jump, and discus, though his favorite part of being on the team is the team spirit between the members.
Emma and Seth agree, appreciating the community within the team and the interactions and bonds they are able to build, even with people from other teams. Together with this supportive, positive atmosphere, it’s no wonder the athletes keep coming back, year after year.
Because even when an athlete is in the midst of their race, in pain and exhausted, they’re never alone. For even then, their team is cheering for them at the tops of their lungs, propelling them towards the finish line.
And that’s the power of a team.
