Throughout this season so far, track and field has broken a total of eight school records. The boys’ team broke the 100-meter dash, 4×100-meter relay, 800-meter sprint medley, 1600-meter sprint medley and 4×1600-meter relay records. Pole vault, 800- meter sprint medley relay and the 1600-meter sprint medley relay were the broken records on the girls’ side.
“I broke the 100-meter dash record,” senior Myles Twyman said. “I think I was able to do it through hard work and the support of my teammates. It was only my second time running in the event because this is my first year doing track.”
While Twyman has only run this event two times now, he has broken the previous record of 10.84 seconds with a run time of 10.61 seconds. Sophomore Ivey Dunn also broke the record for pole vaulting, formerly held by Landon (Watters) Harper in 2006, with a height of 9 feet 6 inches. Dunn set the new bar at 10 feet.
“I started pole vaulting my freshman year,” Dunn said. “I do a lot of out-of-school training for pole vault at Flicky Sticks, and that helps with my technique and my ability to increase even out of the season. Flicky Sticks is a pole vault-only club in Cartersville, and it’s all year round except for August, which is our off month. They take you to really big meets that are only for pole vaulters, and you get to see a lot of the college and Olympic athletes compete up close.”
Dunn trains every week with her team as well as her additional Flicky Sticks practice so she can grow her record. But training isn’t the only method of winning. The boys’ 4×1600-meter relay team values connection when it comes to racing together.
“I raced with Lee Donahue, Hayes Parsa and Wes Knight,” senior Zach Kimani said. “I am close with all these guys outside the track, and we always compete with each other and hold each other accountable. This connection has helped us all improve tremendously.”
One of the key aspects of the relay races is keeping your teammates on track when it comes to training, as well as encouraging each other through tough moments. Having a good connection as a team helps break new records.
“We broke the 800 meter sprint medley and the 1600 meter sprint medley. I think my teammates helped me break this record because we have such a good group of girls, even though we don’t have many people on the actual team,” junior Callie Dempsey said.
Even though the track team has already broken eight records this season, they still have three more chances to increase this number and break more school-wide records.
“It’s just something cool to know that your name is in the record books, and it has definitely inspired me to keep pushing so I can uphold that standard,” Kimani said.