With track continuing through its 6th week since the start of the season, the athletes have attended six meets. The Friday Knight Relays meet, one of the team’s most anticipated meets, took place on Friday, April 4th. Juniors Zach McKinley and Jake Drnec are both on the varsity boys track team. McKinley is participating in his third year of varsity track, where he competes in distance running. He is one of the top runners for Central this year, competing in the mile, the open 4×800 meter relay, and the 4×400 meter relay.

At Howell North, his last meet that he attended for Friday Knight Relays, Central placed third for the 4×400 meter relay, proudly winning over the first medal for boys track this year. The athletes know that, to get a medal, they have to earn it. They begin their training shortly after their season comes to a close towards the end of the year.

“I run because I love it,” McKinley said. “Though it takes a lot of practice. You just gotta keep on running. I usually give it about two or three weeks before I start up training again after the season is over.”

The boys’ practices consist of alternating events on each day. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are dedicated to increasing the boys’ speed, while on Tuesdays and Thursdays, they focus on distance running.

Sophomore Jared Tredway is starting his first year of throwing discus and shotput. Having attended two meets so far, Tredway is constantly learning more of what is expected of a thrower.

“It takes good amount of strength,” Tredway said. “It’s definitely a lot harder than it looks. At the first meet I was at for throwing, I came in a little bit too confident I guess because I didn’t do as good as I wanted to and came in fifth out of six. I’m definitely improving though.”

The most recent meet, at University City High School, was held last Saturday. Drnec is on his first year of varsity boys track and attended the meet on Saturday. The boys came into the meet knowing the competition would be tough, but they pulled through. According to Drnec, they did quite well under the circumstances. Drnec himself did great, as he completely broke his old record and proudly replaced it with a new one on the two mile run.

“My personal record was 12:30 for the two mile, then I broke that record by around two minutes, so I think I did pretty well.”