McLean’s Track and Field team traveled to Liberty University to compete in the first indoor invitational event of the winter season on Dec. 13. The electrifying meet ended with two teams finishing on the podium for the 4×800 meter relay and a new school record in the girls pole vault.
“It was the first real competitive 4×800 that we’ve done this season,” long distance coach Matt Christianson said. “Getting that experience was really helpful today [in] trying to stay competitive with the teams that they’re racing against.”
The boys 4×800 meter team topped the podium, with sophomore Bryce Yang, senior Thomas Millward, senior Carter Lineweaver and senior Adam Hartshorn earning 1st in the meet. In the same event, the girls relay team took 2nd place, the team consisting of senior Catherine Thomas, junior Jaidyn Buday, senior Kathryn Thomas and junior Addison Buday.
“Both the teams have been very competitive in trying to secure their spot on the 4×8. We’ve got a lot of depth this year, more than four runners [for] both the boys and the girls,” Christianson said. “They can run well; that’s been encouraging for the team to be able to push each other and put themselves in the best position to do the best they can.”
Junior Sophie Knudson smashed McLean’s previous school record of nine feet for girls pole vault, jumping 10 feet six inches while junior Avery Diaz also earned a spot in regionals, jumping nine feet and placing 5th.
“I set that record my freshman year, and I’m a junior [now], so it’s been two years,” Knudson said. “It felt really good to finally break that record.”
Knudson landed in third place out of the overall competition which qualified her for the indoor track and field states championships.
“Having good practices for the past couple months and being in a good place in the competition helped me be confident that I could jump higher,” junior Sophie Knudson said. “[In future] I want to jump as high as I can, maybe try to qualify for nationals [and] see if that’s in the picture. [Otherwise,] just keep going up.”
The next meet for McLean’s Track and Field team will be on Dec. 20 at Episcopal High School. The Highlanders had three major victories in this meet with both running and field events at the first invitational event of the season. Countless opportunities lie ahead for runners to set the standards higher.
“It was very good to see, [but] I think what’s more exciting to see is that all of us coaches know that they can do better than what they’ve shown today,” Christianson said. “We see a lot of areas for improvement which is a good sign: knowing that we can do even better next time.”
