TRACK REGIONALS SUCCESSFUL DESPITE DELAY

Written by Eliot Ahn ’25, for The Alcove student newspaper.

Greenhills track team competed in a regional meet at Whiteford Middle and High School on May 21, where they faced off against 11 schools, including Adrian Madison, Gabriel Richard, Blissfield and Dearborn Advanced technology, Dearborn Heights Robichaud, Detroit Voyageur, Erie Mason, IDA, Monroe St Mary, Ottawa Lake-Whiteford, Sand Creek and Taylor Preparatory. During the meet, a combination of weather and equipment issues prolonged the day for the athletes to 10 hours, but the track team was able to perform. 

A thunderstorm prevented the start of the event for more than an hour. Despite the brief nature of the storm it had a downstream effect that led to more delays in the meet.

“We thought we were going to be combating the weather mostly throughout the day,” said Head Coach Mackenzie Hess. “There was a 98 percent chance of thunderstorms so we really thought that was going to be our biggest challenge.”

Along with the rain causing delays in the start of the events and forcing people inside, it also damaged one of the cameras that was used to time athletes. While organizers replaced the camera, there were problems calibrating the replacement camera and athletes were stuck waiting on the track under the sun. The problem with calibrating the new camera also led to some events being repeated, which led to longer delays between events

“The timing issues were pretty substantial,” said Hess. “Especially for our sprinters who at many points in both prelims and in finals were just standing out in the heat after having warmed but not able to run yet because of the timing issues.”

Many of the athletes found these timing and camera issues even more frustrating because the events were already delayed due to the weather. The camera and timer issues affected the sprint events the most and, combined with the rain, caused some events to be delayed for up to two hours. The delays, however, did not stop members on the track team from putting in good performances.

 Several athletes performed very well in their events and many set their personal records. One athlete who did particularly well was Anika Bery ’24. She was the only person on the track team to qualify for the State Championship meet. With her performance in the girls one mile and two mile, she finished in first place in the girls varsity two mile and finished fourth in the girls varsity one mile   

“I think it went really well,” said Bery. “In the one mile, I did okay but I’m not worried about that because I did really well in the two mile because I won.”

Another notable performance from the regional was Lincoln Cha ’24 who finished in fourth in the boys two mile and sixth in the two mile.

“I PR’d in both my events and I ran my first sub-five mile which has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” said Cha.

Despite all of the difficulty that was placed on the athletes on the track team there were many good performances that many of the athletes were proud of. 

“It was pretty frustrating,” said Hess. “It’s one of the challenges we might expect to see. I think the athletes handled it remarkably well. I think the performance speaks to that and people still had amazing performances. We had a lot of people place in the top eight and I think it goes to show you the really strong resilience in the team and the ability to adapt to those challenges.”