Violet Sullivan
It’s been an eventful last few weeks for EHS track and field! For this week’s blog we will be talking about our team’s weekend at the 50th Dartmouth Relays. To summarize, it was fast, fun, and a great experience for all!
As for distance and middle distance, we were broken up racing on Friday night and Saturday with several boys and girls in the mile, two mile, thousand, and 600. We had many PR’s, 2 individual scoring performances, and overall an excellent learning opportunity for both newer and older runners with a competitive field. Personally, a highlight on the team was integrating sprinting and distance with our Friday night girls Sprint Medley relay team. For those who don’t know, a sprint medley has two 200’s, a 400, and an 800. It was a fun to be on a relay team with girls I normally would not get to race with since typically long distance and shorter sprints do not compete together. This just goes to show how unique our sport is and some different aspects Dartmouth Relays can bring to the table. Another exciting result of the meet was accomplishing a goal for our girls cross country runners which has been to individually qualify (provisionally or automatically) for D1’s. After Dartmouth, we’ve had our top 10 girls all on Battlenotes, so it’s been great to see everyone’s hard work from the fall and currently in the winter paying off!
Not only does Dartmouth Relays promote team bonding from spending the weekend together as well as reinforcing the importance of time management with athletics and academics when spending multiple days at races (lots of studying at the race before EHS midterms this week), but the event brings out lots of New Hampshire pride. As a large event against many schools from New York, New Jersey, other New England states, and even Canada (to add an international aspect!), NH athletes especially can use this opportunity to work together to get some fast qualifying times, and practice strategy before states coming up on the same track in a few weeks. So with the heavy snow forecast in the next few days, it’ll officially feel like winter and we’re counting down the days until states!
Dante Radigonda
Hello New Hampshire Track and Field! Last weekend was surely an experience as the 50th Annual Dartmouth Relays kicked off. The meet, as always, was extremely well organized and obviously very fun and exciting! I had the privilege in being able to participate run in the 300m dash and the 4×200 relay. Personally I was very pleased with my times as I was able to come through the line at 36.64 in the 300m for a new PR. That’s where I want to be heading into the last three weeks before states. While my individual events are always a blast, I live for the relays, as there’s no better feeling than being able to anchor and bring it all home for your team and friends. Overall we placed 4th in our 4×200 with Marshall Burns leading off, followed by Jason Edmiston, to Jack McSweeney, and then myself. The time we had run was also our school record, which was very exciting! The Dartmouth Relays is my favorite meet during the Indoor Season, aside from states, and I’ll be excited next year to run it and improve my times! I’ll be looking to place higher next year! Great job to all New Hampshire athletes who participated!
Question of the Week:
How has running at Dartmouth Relays influenced your development as a runner/track athlete this season and helped to prepare you for championship season?
Kyla MacLaughlin (senior, sprinting): “Running in the Dartmouth Relays made me realize how competitive track truly is. Seeing all the great athletes at Dartmouth has given me some extra motivation going into these next couple weeks while we are getting ready for states.”
Gracie Jordan (sophomore, distance): “Running at Dartmouth gave me experience running a larger race with girls I’ve never competed against before. I’m excited to go back and run some fast times at states.”
Erin Kelly (senior, throwing): “I was the last in my flight at the Dartmouth Relays, so I was expecting to throw farther than most of the girls in the flight. It turned out that a lot of the girls had improved since their most recent PR and it was pretty competitive within the flight. It’s definitely influenced the amount of time I’ve spent trying to practice technique and get stronger so I can progress farther than the rest of my flights in the future.”
