Last Saturday, April 7th, Oakton’s Varsity track team attended the annual Carolyn Legard Relays hosted at Wt. Woodson high school at 9 am. The weather was gloomy and harsh so some schools were debating whether to participate, and there ended up being a total of 28 schools ready to compete in the 40 degree weather. Schools came from Maryland and DC to compete for the top three places in which some succeed. There was a total of 16 events held which lasted about 4-5 hours. Oakton competed in a total of 13/16 events. As of now, no one has beaten the girls 1600 2 year   record held by Oakton’s very own senior, Kira Buttrey, at the meet. For the 100m hurdles, a series of barriers known as that  are set at precisely measured heights and distances which each athlete must pass by running over, freshman Anne Hougaard took 29th place overall with a time of 20.39 seconds. While no Oakton boys competed in the 110m hurdles most participated in the  relays and field events. The girls 4x200m, an event where each runner runs a 200 meter dash and results in an overall 800 meter, ran 1:58 minute which led them to 12th place overall and the boys ran a 1:48 minute ,but finished 24th place overall. The boys and girls also participated in the 1000 meter sprint medley which involves the relay team running a 100 meter leg, a 200 meter leg, a 300 meter leg and a 400 meter leg with girls ending in 11th place with a time of 2:36 minute and boys running a 2:16 minute  in which they ended in 17th place.

Focusing more on the field side of track and field, the girls participated in long jump, distance, and shot put. For long jump,an athletic event in which competitors jump as far as possible along the ground in one leap into sand, sophomore Marie Kitzmiller received 14th with a jump of 14ft 1in. Junior twins Audrey and Olivia Schmitz ended in 38th and 40th place overall in discus with Audrey throwing a 57-11ft and Olivia throwing a 54-3ft. For Shot put ,an athletic contest in which a very heavy round ball is thrown as far as possible, junior Audrey Schmitz threw 23-3ft landing in 36th place. The boys participated in pole vault, long jump, shot put, and discus. Our greatest victory was Ryan Cherry’s pole vault,an athletic event in which competitors attempt to vault over a high bar with the end of an extremely long flexible pole held in the hands and used to give extra spring, his height 13-6ft landing him in 2nd place overall. Alex Richilin threw a whopping 112-8ft in discus,a heavy thick-centered disk thrown by an athlete, in ancient Greek games or in modern field events , ending in 7th in the meet.

In conclusion, each person contributed points to the overall ranking of the team. The next meet is reported to be on April 13, at 3:00 for the Gojekian Twilight Classic. The weather forecast shows a promising temperature of appx. 80 degrees so the runners won’t have to face the problem of running in the cold. After all the practice and conditioning Oakton should show progress and be successful at attacking the track at this meet.