Junior Keri Gilligan racing during the GBL Open in 2018. Photo from the Blue and Gold Archives.
While Malden High students returned to school after the Thanksgiving break, many also started the 2018-2019 season of their winter sport. For those in Indoor Track, the new season also ushered in a feeling of a new beginning, with high hopes for the season both in their races and in their sportsmanship.
Tryouts began and concluded last week, which brought in several new runners to the team. According to Junior Angelina Schorr, the new members of the team are “excited, hardworking” and most importantly “ready to put in the commitment.” Schorr states that she “cannot wait” to get closer to all the new members and hopefully see her as “someone that is always willing to support and help them.” Junior Isabella Machado adds that the new team members have been “pretty great actually,” showing “lots of hard work” at tryouts.
Last season was marked by the amount of talent the team had, according to Junior Omar Asousy. The team had “good runners, throwers, and jumpers in every event.” The highlight of the season last year was how the girls team managed to beat Peabody, one of their prominent rivals.
But for every high, there were notable lows. The most common negative aspect of last season was the relationships between those in the team. Schorr says that there was considerable division in the team, with the “throwers, sprinters, and distance [runners]” forming their own cliques. Tensions also grew between some of the runners, according to Schorr. This year, the team hopes to “dissipate those tensions” and “remember to support one another no matter what.” There was also too much dependence on the seniors, who graduated last year, according to Asousy.
The team’s goals for this season to “create a better connection” amongst themselves and “be more friendly with one another,” Schorr says. Track is a “family” to Schorr, so making everyone feel included is imperative to the team. Asousy says that the boys team are aiming for six wins out of seven, “just like [they] did last year.” His personal goals is to get first place in “most of [his] races” and to “break 4:40 in the mile and 2:43 in the 1000 meter.” Likewise, for Machado, her goal is to have a personal record of “at least 5:35 for the mile” and “maybe even beat the school record.” Schorr aims to “keep hitting faster times” while also getting new personal records in her events.
To ensure the team meets their goals, the team is “trying to develop talent” in places they “lost talent from people graduating,” Asousy says. They plan to do this by making sure that they find out “what each person is good in terms of track” and “slowly increase their workload,” according to Asousy. Schorr adds that the coaches will also be making sure to communicate to the team this year “the importance of support, commitment, and hard work” to guarantee that everyone on the team does what they are expected to do and “keep everyone united.” On hitting their personal goals, Asousy will plan to practice “hard” and to the best of his ability everyday to improve his times and his “consistency” in every race. Machado plans to “stick to [her] workouts” to improve her times. She also says how the coaches are trying hard to build a team not just based on talent, but also “based on character.”
With a new group of runners and a commitment to helping each other get to the top, the Indoor Track team is ready to sprint into the season.
