Grit and Determination of Track and Field

When most people think of athletics they think of the common sports of soccer, baseball, field hockey, and so on. What most people don't think of is track and field. Track and field is an extremely interesting and eventful sport, but most people don't think about it very much. In this article, I am going to introduce you to track and field and share scores and highlights from the last L-S track meet.


So to start, we have track events and field events. The track event groups include distance, sprints, and hurdles. The field events include jumps, vaults, and throws. For reference, each lap on the track is 400 meters or 0.25 miles. The distance events include the 800, 1600, and 3200. The sprinting events include the 100, 200, and 400. The hurdling events include 110 hurdles and 310 hurdles. In the field events, jumping is one of the groups. In jumps, there is a high jump, long jump, and triple jump. In throws, there is discus, shot put, and javelin. The last field event is pole vault.

The most recent track meet was on April 8th against Manheim central. Below are the 1st place winners and their time/distance in each event.

Girls: 100- L.Symanski (LS), 12.9; 200- E. Strauss (LS), 26.7; 400- R.Nolt (MC), 64.7; 800- C.Gilbert( LS), 2:28.8; 1600- M.Gordely (LS), 5:47; 3200- C.Gilbert (LS), 12:28; High hurdles- L.Gard (LS), 17.0; 300 hurdels- T. Fahenstock (MC), 48.7; 400 relay- (LS), 52.7; 1600 relay-(MC),4:27.2; 3200 relay- (LS), 10:39.4; Shot put- B. Brenemann (LS), 33-6 1/2; Discus- K.Herr (LS),114-9; Javelin- K.Herr (LS),135-10; Long Jump- E.Strauss (LS), 15-7 1/2; Triple Jump- E.Strauss (LS), 15-11 1/2; High Jump- A. Moran (LS), 5-0; Pole vault- T.Fahenstock (MC), 8-0.

Boys: 100- E. Mellinger (LS), 10.2; 200-E.Mellinger (LS), 21.4; 400- Rivers (MC), 52.3; 800- A.Harnish (LS), 2:07.9; 1600- C.Heptner (MC), 4:46.0; 3200- D.Helms (LS), 10:46.0; High Hurdles- Z.Reed (MC), 14.9; 300 Hurdles- J.Zehr (LS), 40.0; 400 relay- (LS), 44.6; 1600 relay- (MC), 3:40.9; 3200 relay- (LS), 8:44.6; Shot Put- G. Fredrick (LS), 48-10 1/2; Discus- J.Long (LS), 142-8; Javelin- A.Stoeffler (LS), 154-8; Long Jump-E.Mellinger (LS), 23-1 1/4; Triple Jump-Witmer (MC), 38-8; High Jump-Witmer (MC), 5-6; Pole vault- J.Zehr (LS),12-0.




At this meet, Ezra Mellinger set a new school record in the 100-meter dash with his time of 10.2 seconds. He also received first in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.4 seconds and long jump with a distance of 23' 1.25".



In the end, the L-S girls beat Manheim central with a final score of 98-52, and the L-S boys beat Manheim central with a final score of 88-62. Track scoring is obviously different than most other sports. It is scored by giving a certain amount of points to the first, second, and third place athlete in each event. When an athlete gets first in an event, their team gets 5 points. Then the athlete that finishes in second earns their team 3 points. Last, when an athlete finish is third, they receive 1 point. When it comes to relays, it is all or nothing as the winning team receives 5 points and the losing team receives 0.


Cyan Rodriguez, A freshman 1600 runner, said "Overall, it was a great meet. It was awesome running weather, which always adds to the experience."

To summarize, track is a great sport that tends to be overlooked. I hope you learned something today, and maybe I'll see you at the next L-S track meet!

--By Molly Wissler, LS News reporter

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