Amidst a long, snowy week for the Highlanders, McLean’s indoor track team did not take a break. On Friday, Jan 30, the winter track team traveled to Prince George’s Sports & Learning Complex to compete in the Liberty District Championship. Even with the deterrence of a week of no team training, the team rallied and won the District for the first time since 2005.

“We put a lot of effort into this season, especially over winter break,” junior Sydney Walker said. “Even though we couldn’t run outside in the days before the meet, we still did everything we could to prepare and get workouts in.”

For the boys, 10 medals were won, with three ending in gold for the Highlanders. In the 4×800 meter relay, seniors Tommy Milward and Vikram East, junior Adam Hartshorn and sophomore Bryce Yang took home gold. Stephen Shields took home gold in the 55 meter hurdles, and the 4×400 meter relay composed of seniors Owen Rasmussen, Luke Hamel, Milward and junior Peyton Tabor won gold as well.

On the girls side, 11 medals were awarded with five being first place. The 4×800 meter relay for the girls also took home gold, a team of juniors Addy and Jaidyn Budday, Walker and senior Catherine Thomas. Jaidyn also took gold in the 1000 meter and the 1600 meter races. Walker took home gold in the 3200 meter and junior Sophie Knudson got gold in Pole Vault.

“We were so successful as a team because we were strong overall in so many different events,” Walker said. “We had a lot of people step up to help the team when not everything went to plan.”

The Regional meet will be on Feb. 11 at the same site that the team took the district title from. Many runners are poised to compete, and the focus is to keep working hard and push to the maximum for success.

“We can definitely win the region; we have the talent to do so,” junior Jack Schwabish said. “All that we need to do is continue to work hard and grind and the stars will align for us.”

After regionals, some runners have already qualified for the state tournament. Even if the team doesn’t win and qualify together for states, they’ll still be rooting on their teammates competing at the highest level.

“We’re looking to regionals but we’re itching for states,” senior Carter Lineweaver said. “We’d love to bring a banner to the rafters and continue the dominant postseason run but if we can’t, we for sure will be rooting on the individuals at states.”