The Clarke Central High School track and field team pose for a picture after a team bonding “fun run” to Planet Smoothie on Feb. 12. Head track and field coach Justin Jones believes that the team performed well over the course of the track and field season, which concluded on May 9. “I’d say the greatest team victories would be that we improved our times from the 2018 season,” Jones said. “That’s the way track and field is sometimes, you can improve your individual time, but everybody around you improves as well so you don’t (get to) see that improvement as much as you would like to.” Photo courtesy of Justin Jones
Following the end of the 2019 track and field season, coaches and runners say the team had a successful season.
The Clarke Central High School track and field team finished the season on a good note, showing dramatic improvement from the previous season according to the coaching staff. Both teams placed fourth in the regional competition and the girls team placed eighth at state competition.
“(We had) a lot of the overall times from 2018 to 2019 improve on the girl and the guys side and obviously the girls finishing fourth in the region after not even being sixth last year,” head track and field coach Justin Jones said. “The victory is that our team stuck with it. We did not fold when we could have and we showed a lot of perseverance during the season.”
Sophomore Nicholas Willingham believes that the team became stronger after placing fourth at the regional competition.
“I believe it brought us closer because you can see which ones are there for you and the ones that just quit and left,” Willingham said.
For Jones, the teams placing at regionals is directly linked to their dedication to the sport as a whole.
“Just being resilient the entire season (led to our success), because we did have challenges on and off the track, but the majority of our athletes stuck with it and were able to perform at their best when it mattered the most,” Jones said.
Jones is just as proud of the team’s individual accomplishments as their victories together.
“Zaili Gantt, a freshman, was fifth in the triple jump,” Jones said. “Lashanti WIlliams, who is a sophomore, won the 5A long jump and the 5A 100 meters, and she was also fifth in the 200 meters.”
Although both the boys and the girls teams made it to the state competition, Willingham believes there is still room to improve.
“I think (we) can grow everywhere. (For) some people, it was (their) first high school track meets and all that, so I believe we are going to be 10 times better (next) year,” Willingham said. “I think that we can build ourselves to be stronger and show people that doubt us that we can (get) over the hump. We’ll have a few of our core athletes working on their skills during the summer as well, so I just think that ‘s going to propel us to have an even better 2020 season.”
