On April 6th, the FHC girls track and field triumphed once again at the Wolfpack Invitational Meet. Several girls hit their own personal best times, and made even more headway in reaching their goals. One such person was junior Mikayla Aubuchon, who felt the meet went very well not only for her but also her teammates because of all their performances.

“I think that varsity did really well at the invitational. All of us tried our best and got really good times,” Aubuchon said. “My goal was to get a new PR, and I did by 7 seconds.”

Sophomore Anasofia Carillo, while not reaching her goal, was able to make it close and make progress towards victory.

“My goal was to make 70 feet. I was just short of that as I hit 68 feet,” Carillo said.

Carillo says she believes the reason her team did so well was because they put in the effort, and she feels confident knowing her team is already thriving this early in the season.

“The girls pushed themselves and the results showed,” Carillo said. “I think it’s great that we are having results like this and it’s only the peak of the season.”

Aubuchon also enjoyed the positive results, and thinks the favorable outcome can also be attributed to how supportive the team was of one another.

“Personally, I was really proud of myself and my teammates. It felt nice to see all of the hard work we’ve done pay off,” Aubuchon said. “Everyone was very supportive and encouraging throughout the whole race too, there was a lot of positivity.”

Preparation is key to doing well, and according to Aubuchon, the track coach Mrs. Sheri Baize does a very thorough job of getting them ready for their meets. Their bodies and minds are well prepared to perform the best they can through various exercises.

“We prepare ourselves physically by going on long runs to build endurance, conditioning to become stronger, and doing drills to focus on improving our form,” Aubuchon said.

Sophomore Alyssa Winkler also says that they warm up their hearts and lungs to prepare them for the strain they are about to undergo.

“We all warm up together, we all do stretches and strides(sprints) and we do some cardio to get our heart rates up,” Winkler said.

There is a great deal of preparation that the runners do in their minds complementary to the their physical preparation, according to Aubuchon.

“Mentally, we prepare by grabbing our mats and doing yoga, visualizing the different stages of our race, and the coach shows us encouraging statements we can tell ourselves during the race. Mrs. Baize does an amazing job of making sure our body’s and minds are both ready to race,” Aubuchon said.

For some, mantras and exercises like these are very useful when running. Winkler says she uses them to focus on her own performance while in the middle of a race.

“I tell myself it’s just a race against myself, don’t worry about everyone else,” Winkler said.