Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

Freedom Area High School's Student Newspaper

FHS Press

Jumping over Beaver, marking the section: Breaking and setting records one hurdle at a time

As the end of the school year approaches, the Freedom track and field team prepares itself for the WPIAL semi-finals once again. Within the month of April alone, the team has had many opportunities for practice including MACs, the Beaver County Championships and numerous meets. Track and Field students continue to raise the bar and improve individually throughout the season. Whether the event is running, jumping or throwing, student goals and achievements are ever present throughout the team. Jumping One event that has shown improvement from its team members are the pole-vaulters. “At first, it was hard to learn, but now I’m starting to get the hang of it. It’s only scary if you don’t get enough speed and slowly go up,” Freshman pole-vaulter Colin Gilarno said. Gilarno is optimistic with his goal of vaulting a height over 9 feet 6 inches, since he started the season jumping only 6 feet and has quickly improved to making 9 foot jumps. Maintaining the right form is the key trick to the progress Gilarno has seen. “First you have to run right and then you have to carry the pole right. If you don’t do that, the jump won’t be right,” Freshman pole-vaulter Nate Lewis said. “It’s all a big sequence. You have to do one thing right to do the rest of it right.” Throwing One thing javelin throwers do to have fun is a competition in kicking the javelin the farthest. Junior javelin thrower Matthew VanDeCar aspires to kick it farther than Junior Brandon Heckman and said it raises their competition level. But besides kicking the javelin, VanDeCar throws around the average 110 feet to 120 feet every meet. “But if you’re a freak like [Collin] Allego, you throw 160 [feet],” VanDeCar said. With skilled team members filling every throwing event, success for the throwers has continued throughout this track season. “As a team, we win all the time,” VanDeCar said. Track and field is, in fact, a team sport, but it also leaves room for individuality and self-reliance. Junior shotput thrower Adam Shawger expressed that was what he liked most about being in track. “It’s a team sport, but you don’t really have to rely on everybody else,” Shawger said. “I like working on what I have to do and not worrying about anybody else.” Running With the track events of this season, one thing has been made clear, there has been a lot of hardship and hard work. Sprinters, hurdlers and distance runners all have endured much pain to reach the point they are at right now. “It hurts really bad, but it’s worth it,” Junior Noah Marks, a competitor in the 4 by 800 meter relay and the 800 meter run, said. Like Marks, Freshman Tina Davis finds competing in the 100 and 300 meter hurdles and 4 by 100 meter relay “nerve-wracking because you don’t know what’s going to happen.” Even with nerves and pain, the runners of the track team continue to push themselves for victory. “At the beginning of the track season it was hard because I didn’t know many of the people, and it was hard to do much of the stuff they did. Right now, it’s gotten a lot better since I know everyone and can do everything,” Freshman Draek Boggs said. One runner has shown such excellence through the breaking of a school record. Junior Wesley Roberts broke the record for the 3200 meter run which was previously held by Ryan Barlow with a time of 10 minutes and one second. Roberts beat that time by three seconds, getting a time of nine minutes and 58 seconds. Photos by Natalie Snow, Costa Barlamas & Evan Stiger