Starting Feb. 21, many track members devoted one hour and 30 minutes every weekday to optional conditioning for the 2012 track season. Since conditioning is optional, some athletes don’t attend. “Conditioning helps you to get ready for the season and to get you the right form for your events, so that you can look good while doing [your event],” Freshman Draek Boggs said. The track team consists of sprinters, distance runners, throwers and jumpers. With a selection of 18 events, each athlete is able to compete in up to four of them. There are also six total coaches: one for sprinting, one for distance, one for pole vault, one for jumping, one for hurdles and one for throwing. Each coach is dedicated to different types of events, which is very beneficial to the athletes. In middle school, the coaches help with all of the events. If someone needs help with triple jump, a coach will be there. If other athletes need help with hurdling, they have to go help those people. Junior Noah Marks thinks having multiple coaches is beneficial because “[the distance runners] build a relationship with Tink.” Marks isn’t alone in this opinion. “[Having multiple coaches] helps you because they are able to show you what you’re doing wrong and fix it,” Sophomore Tyler Shingleton said. Practices from Monday to Friday really pay off in the end. In 2009, the girls team won first place in WPIALs and have been section champs for the last five years. Last year, both boys and girls teams went to WPIALs. This year, Senior Sara Allego expects nothing less from the team. There are high hopes for the team to go to championships and WPIALs. A different thing about track is that the team doesn’t really compete, unlike team sports such as soccer or basketball. The athletes compete and win or place individually by event. They don’t really do many fun things together as a team besides practice, but Marks said “succeeding is celebrating enough.” What they all have in common is that they do track and love it. Therefore, sometimes people consider track as the athletes winning for themselves. “You cannot only work to achieve your own goal,” Sophomore Jen Wallis said, “but you can also try to win as a [team].”