West High School’s Track team is preparing more rigorously than ever during preseason this year. They have one main goal in mind: winning Bay League. According to Coach Ken, “in order to win, however, we need to focus on making each teammate meet their personal goals. That way it will benefit the team as a whole.” Track athletes like Blake Gilmartin (12), are trying to achieve their best times. Gilmartin hopes to “get below a 53-second time in a 400-meter race and run in the main varsity 4×4 team.” Other coach, Coach Jeff as everyone calls him, says that “our new addition to track this year is high-intensity training. This type of training focuses on weight-lifting, power-lifting, and increasing stamina, endurance, and overall strength.” Last year, the track team broke their expectations, but this year expectations are even higher.

   The team does workouts such as high knees, lunges, A-skips, B-skips, and prepare for upcoming workouts such as 200-meter repeats. Gilmartin adds that track members from all fields – pole vaulting, hurdling, long jump, sprints, distance, and shot puts – “go to the weight room every Tuesday, working with pro trainers to train [their] upper bodies. This is something we didn’t have last year.” High-intensity training calls for high heart rate and so much sweating. Regardless, our track members are working hard to keep up so that they do well during the season. “While we are exercising, we feel intense pain, but after we’re all done, it feels so good. I feel fit,” says Soujanya Hotha (10).

   Overall, it seems that everyone on the team is taking track more seriously this year. With the new training, the track athletes are looking stronger and more confident enough that they believe that they can beat last season’s records. Our Warriors are hoping to see them push forward to success as a team and come home as Bay League Champions.