After a strong, competitive season in cross country, the Titan runners now shift their focus to indoor track. With the girls finishing in 8th and the boys finishing 21st in the cross country state playoffs, plus strong returning athletes in field events, the boys and girls teams have extremely high expectations this season.
Head coach Nathan Newsome knows the runners are poised for success with talent across the entire team.
“Our distance kids are pretty solid because the cross country teams do pretty good. We have some pretty good field events; we have the returning state champion in the boys long jump and we do well usually in the pole vault, so usually field events we do decent in, but it’s kind of early so we’ll have to see,” Newsome said.
For the boys team, senior Tyson Adams is the returning state champion in the long jump and will look to defend his title this year in hopes of becoming a three-time state champion. He also runs the 55-meter dash and 55-meter hurdles, aspiring to break the school records in those events as well.
“For the first meet, I plan on going at least 25 feet for the long jump, and then maybe breaking the school record for the 55 [meter dash],” Adams said.
Speaking of broken records, senior distance runner Wesley Haggstrom, whose 5K time of 15 minutes and 34 seconds set the school record during the cross country season, will look to also break school records in the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Even with the chance to shatter more school records this upcoming year, Haggstrom’s focus is not on his potential personal accomplishments, but rather on getting to run with his teammates.
“My favorite part of running is putting in the hard work and being able to see the results through getting your time faster, but I also enjoy running with all the boys and miss running with Brandt [Doty]. My favorite part of being on the indoor track team is the social aspect that comes along with being on a team. You can really bond with people when you’re both working hard together,” Haggstrom said.
On the girls team, senior Tenley Douglass has had personal success herself, placing 56th overall in the girls state championship during the cross country season, and is looking to finish strong in her final year running. Leading the girls team, Douglass knows the importance of setting a good example for the less experienced runners.
“As a captain this year, I hope to motivate the younger athletes to push through the discomfort and believe in themselves, but also know that it’s okay when races or workouts don’t go exactly how you hoped,” Douglass said.
Junior Abby Reutinger set her personal record this year in the 5K with a time of 19 minutes and 10 seconds, and she will round out a strong girls team that strives to carry over success from the cross country season. Like many of the runners, she has high expectations for herself.
“A personal goal for indoor track would be to qualify for the state meet,” Reutinger said.
Even with tough competition throughout the county, both teams have big aspirations for their runners and will look to succeed in the county, regional and state championships.
“Parkland, Mount Tabor and Reagan are always very good, Reynolds has some good distance kids too so there’s a lot of county competition…[but] we will still try to qualify as many kids as we can in the state championship meet,” Newsome said.
The runners will hope to start their season strong in their first meet on Dec. 1, showcasing the talent they have and proving they can compete with the best of the best.