This spring, the girls track team is back and working harder than ever. After a good start to the season, many girls qualified for not only individual events in the Drake Relays, but some relay teams qualified as well. In the past few weeks, the girls have had 2 second place finishes and won their last home meet.

Track is composed of four groups: long distance runners, sprinters, throwers, and jumpers. “We are strong in all four categories which makes us an extremely competitive team. One weakness is our size,” said senior Phaedra Lipsey. “We compete against some very large schools with lots of athletes, so it is sometimes a challenge to run against them when we have fewer girls participating in track.”

The team started this season with big goals set for themselves. “A goal the team is looking to achieve this season would be to qualify as many events as we can to the State Meet, and to perform to our highest abilities,” said senior Madi Mills, who just signed to run at UNI next year.

“This season we have two main goals,” said Lipsey. “The first goal is to have fun because the majority of the girls in track don’t actually love to run. Therefore, enjoying time with our teammates is important. The second goal is to use our hard work and training to be successful during competitions.”

Unfortunately, the girls are nearing the end of their season, so they are done running at home. However, Thursday, May 14th is their State Qualifying Meet at Waukee. The team hopes to qualify in a lot of events.
“We feel great when all of our preparation pays off,” said Lipsey.