Even though the season got off to a cold start, the freshmen on the girls track team are keeping things hot. They practiced through the bitterly cold winter and are welcoming the warmer spring weather.

“Right now the practices are pretty chill, they’re getting a bit easier, cause the season is starting to wind down,” Olivia Burke ‘21, a sprinter said, “But we’re still ready to run.”

The junior varsity and varsity teams were having pre-meet practices in preparation for the Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) meet. Burke prepared to run the sprint medley for the JV team alongside teammate Natalie Green ‘21.

“My personal season has been going very well,” Green said, “[and] the team is improving every week. It’s really fun to see the team [continue to] improve.”

Burke and Green will also ran the shuttle hurdle relay together at the MVC meet. Green ran in the 100m shuttle hurdle too. Jae Dancer ‘21 ran the varsity shuttle hurdle, distance medley, 400m hurdles and JV high jump.

“I hurdled a little last year but I mostly did mid-distance races. I was a little surprised but also thrilled when Coach told me I would mostly be running hurdle events this year,” said Dancer. “This year our shuttle-hurdle relay team has been running well. If we can consistently keep our time of 1.09 then we should be fast enough to qualify for state!”

Burke recently had to take a break from running due to a stress fracture in her left tibia. She was forced to wear a boot for a month, but she started running at practices five days ago.

“It made me realize that I need to listen to my legs when they start to hurt and take better care of them, I need to know when to stop,” Burke said. “That’s the problem I have. I love running so much I don’t want to stop!”

Coming back from the injury Burke has set some personal records and continued to improve. All the freshmen, including Dancer and Green, have set PRs this year.

“Personally, I enjoy being a freshman. There are so many new things to try and learn,” said Dancer. “Also, the upperclassmen are super positive and have made me feel super comfortable around the team. Specifically Addy Smith [‘18], Kinsee Brands [‘18], and Kate Swenning [‘19] have been really good role models for me this track season.”

Though season is warming up for the freshmen, it started off pretty chilly.

“Because of how committed the coaches are, no matter how cold it got, we always ended up training hard. However, the weather had affected many of our track meets due to cancellations and such.”

They will continue to practice hard when the girls return from the MVC meet this past Friday.

“I’m really proud of us and how well we’re doing,” said Burke, “The coaches are comparing us to last year and keep saying that we’re doing better than last year so I guess we’re doing great!”