This season the Harrisonburg High School indoor track team welcomed many new, inexperienced members, bringing the roster to almost 70 participants, their largest team ever. The new talent has brought depth to the team and has shown signs of filling many holes that last years seniors left empty upon graduating. Coach David Loughran had similar expectations to last year and was pleased with the newly added talent.
“This year we expected to have a lot of post season qualifiers and to maintain our strong boy’s team,” Loughran said. “We expected a number of new people because word has spread that we have a lot of fun and are really successful as a team.
Junior Jake Johnson is one of the new indoor track team members.
“I decided to run because I wanted to get faster for football and baseball,” Johnson said. “Also, my friend Ryan Fletcher told me that it was really fun and laid back.”
“I’m impressed with anyone who can come and suffer through this weather,” Loughran said. “Jake’s a terrific all around athlete and he is going to be able to help the team out in a lot of ways.”
Johnson was also told that coaches David Loughran and Gary Bugg were really fun and he agrees saying that both are very funny and make practice fun. Johnson’s events include the 55 hurdles, the high jump and triple jump, the 300 meter run, and the 400 meter run.
“I like these events because I am more of a sprinter than a long distance runner,” Johnson said.
Freshman Isaac Falk and Sophomore Taelor Adams also decided to run to stay in shape.
“I wanted to keep going with the conditioning I had in cheerleading until softball starts,” Adams said.
Freshman Isaac Falk, another new member of the team, also decided to run to get into shape. Falk enjoys running middles distances.
“I have been running the mile, but I hope that I get to run the 800 or 400 soon,” Falk said. “I prefer those distances.”
Adams was surprised with how her running career turned out.
“I did not expect to high jump or hurdle,” Adams said. “Coach Bugg saw my drills during practice and thought that I should try the events.”
“Taelor’s ability to learn special techniques for hurdles and jumping which has set her apart,” Loughran said.
Johnson had a lot of fun at the team’s first meet of the season on December 17th at Eastern Mennonite University.
“At first I was really nervous for the high jump,” Johnson said. “I didn’t know what I was doing but then I figured it out.”
Falk hopes to win some races this year and improve in all of his events a much as possible.
“I hope to get better by practicing more and doing core exercises,” Falk said.
Johnson did not have any trouble keeping up with the order of events because of the events sheet that is given to each team member with the event that they are running highlighted along with the order of events.
“I want to win at least one race,” Johnson said. “Just one.”
Winning more races however would probably not disappoint. Johnson hopes that the team is able to win both regionals and states this year to finish of a great season.
“Indoor is a great opportunity for athletes who want to improve their fitness and speed instead of sitting around all winter,” Loughran said. “At this point, routine and expectations have been set and the team needs to be self sufficient which they have been this year, making it much easier on us, the coaches.”
The newly added talent has served to be a large factor in the indoor track team’s success so far this year and is sure to continue to do so well into the post season competitions.
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