By Ethan Ellis---Eagle Staff Writer
As the spring season approaches, the outdoor track team has begun preparations for their first meet on April 28.
This season, Chris Renick will serve as the head coach of the team and will be assisted by Chris Williams, who will coach the long distance runners, and Travis Johnson, who will coach the throwers.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what young talent will be coming out and working with them, for great leadership from our upperclassmen, and for our veterans to continue to compete at a high level and hopefully bring home some more state titles,” began Renick.
This will be the first outdoor track season for both the coaches and athletes in two years after last year’s season was canceled due to COVID-19. And while Covid numbers have been going down around the U.S., there will still be some restrictions in place during the season that the team will have to work around.
“We are still limited to meets that we can compete in and how many teams can compete in each meet during the regular season.” Renick explained.
The Eagles will only compete against Blue Ridge District teams in the four regular season meets they have scheduled for this season. The meets will take place at Staunton River, twice at William Byrd, and at Northside.
“I want to lower my times in all the events I run, specifically a 55 second run in the 400 meter dash and a 21 second run in the 200 meter dash,” said senior Nicholas Werger, who is in his last season of being a high school athlete.
While Covid may have limited the number of meets the Eagles can compete in, that does not mean that athletes have limited their goals for this season. Seniors like Nicholas Werger will have one last chance to achieve their high school goals before moving on to college.
“It’s bittersweet knowing that it is my last year to compete in high school, but I will be moving on, and hopefully running in college,” Werger commented.
He will go on to run track for Emory & Henry next year.
But, there is still much to look forward to this season. For senior Roman Ciulla, he is looking forward to the regional meet.
“It’s the biggest meet of the season,” said Ciulla.
The regional meet will be held on June 12th at Landstown High School. To qualify for it, athletes will need to be ranked in the top 16 of an event and will have to compete against nine other schools.