After a long run, the girl’s track and field season has ended with multiple records broken. Senior Maddy Mabray has shattered the girl’s pole vault record, with her final record height being 3.20M, a record she set at state and placed 7th in the Class 5 State Championships.

Mabray recounts the exciting dynamic the team had and reminisces on the memories she shared with fellow teammates from ice baths to practicing in not-so-ideal weather conditions.

“The energy of the team was insane. Between ice baths and Saturday morning meets, practice in the rain and staying after practice to stretch, I was always laughing.” Mabray said. “We had really good dynamics on our relay teams and I couldn’t be more grateful for the people I got to spend the season with,”

Many believe that track and field is a solo sport, however, according to Mabray, it isn’t close to one. Although they compete alone, they work together to better each other’s performance and relate to each other’s experiences, ultimately leading to chemistry and bonds. 

“Although you might get a solo time, track is by no means a solo sport. You need teammates to push yourself in practice with, to hype you up, to warm up with you, to cheer you on, to review your performance, to bounce ideas and feedback off of. Team chemistry is so important.” Mabray said. “The biggest thing is that when you have someone who is running next to you feeling the same things you are, having someone who sweats with you, who cheers with you, who feels the same burning in their lungs as you do, you form a bond so quickly.”

Senior Taylor Steinagel, co-captain of the team, was entirely new to the school after moving here this year and track brought her close friends throughout the season.

“I did not know anyone on the track team when I started but now I would definitely call some of the people on the track team my closest friends,” Steinagel said.

As captain, she wanted to make sure that practices were more than plain practice. She wanted to make sure each teammate had fun and the energy was high. 

“It was super fun to make sure everyone had a good time at practice because it’s one thing to have practice and just work out, and to have a practice you are enjoying with your teammates,” Steinagel said. 

Along with creating a high-energy environment during practice as a captain, Steinagel also set goals for her own performance for the season. She wanted to break a school record, and with the help of a coach achieved that goal.

“At the beginning of the season, I wanted to break the school record for either the long jump or the triple jump, and I did it with the help of Coach Jefferson,” Steinagel.

Imparting her final piece of advice Steinagel encourages everyone to join the track team, and believes that there are people who have the potential to break more records. 

“I wish more people had gone out for track because we have a lot of athletic ability at this school to do more,” Steinagel said.

Mabray also leaves advice and simply put, it is to slow down.

“Slow down and take your time. The amount of improvement I’d see after having a recovery day in practice was indescribable. Having my coaches force me to slow down and let myself recover physically and mentally even when there seemed to be a pressing deadline like a state meet later in the week was one of the reasons I was able to do all that I did.” Mabray said. “Beyond that, slowing down and taking time to enjoy things is what really built the relationship I had with my teammates. It’s because we stayed after to sit on the field and talked while we stretched, it’s because of the moments in between our events at meets where we messed around and cheered each other on that built the dynamic that we had.”