I started doing track as a sprinter, but it became obvious to me fairly quickly that there was way too much competition among the sprinters for all of us to make it to MESAC. There are only 2 people from each school allowed per event and there were around 4 of us. Most of us wanted to race in at least 4, if not then the maximum, 5 events over the course of the 3 day tournament. I was pretty fast at the time, but definitely not the fastest and it was very close competition for second. I decided to take my talents elsewhere, to the otherwise empty JV hurdles team.
I figured it would be the same thing as sprinting, but you just have to jump every once and awhile right? Actually yeah, I was right for the most part but it ended up being harder than it sounds. I probably had the worst hip flexibility out of anyone who had ever even dreamed of running hurdles, and learning the technique was near impossible. I happened to win the 400m hurdles in my first year of trying it just because I could run fast in between the hurdles and I have a really good kick at the end. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the event so I stuck with it the next year and learned the proper form and increased my flexibility which didn’t lead to incredibly better results on the leaderboard, but still lead to massive personal improvement. A trend that would continue into my junior and hopefully senior year of track and field.
Achievements
- MIP award grade 9
- Coaches award grade 10
- 400x4 m relay gold grade 9
- 400m hurdles gold grade 9
- 400m hurdles gold grade 10
- 100m hurdles silver grade 10
- 400x4 m relay gold grade 10
- 100x4 m relay silver grade 10
- 200 m silver grade 10
- Silver Team Medal grade 10