Sports have always had a big impact on YC and all of the student athletes have their own thoughts on the sports they play. Freshman Jaime Garcia and Junior Chandler Morris are members of this season’s track and field team.

Garcia takes part in high jump, long jump, 4×1 relay, sometimes 4×4 relay, 200 meter, and now starting javelin. “I didn’t really see it as a struggle because my peers are older than me, so they have more experience than me so it is easier to learn from them, rather than from somebody that doesn’t have much experience”, says Garcia in response to whether or not it is a struggle being one of the few freshmen on the team.

“High jump was a setback, I didn’t think I was going to get over 5 foot on my first jump but then I did.” Overcoming the setbacks in a fairly new sport is a huge accomplishment and it shows determination in the athlete.

Being asked the difference between high school and middle school track, Garcia said that the events are run differently, not too much but they are, and the coaches have more specific tasks and its more defined.

“They’re pretty good, I like the coaching staff. They mainly teach you what you need to know and not just the basics as in middle school they really only taught the basics,” was the response to the coaching staff.

Morris, when asked what events he does he said, “It depends, I do 4×4, 4×1, 200 meter dash, long jump, and high jump.

When asked about struggles that he has overcome he said, “It’s a lot more running than any other sport I’ve done, because I have only done basketball this year since I couldn’t do football so I guess getting in shape for what (track coach) Tracie Looney wants me to do was hard but I’m getting use to it.” He was also pretty happy about the coaching staff but there isn’t much he could go off of since it was his first year.

This season YC had three students who qualified for state. Junior Shane Davis, Junior Andrew Doran, and Sophomore Sadie Horne. Each of the three student athletes competed May 18-20 at Hayward Field in the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

Davis  placed first in the district meet for the 800 meter run. During the state meet he placed fifth. His time was 2:01.18. Doran placed second in the district meet for the 1500 meter run. During the state meet he placed 10th with a time of 4:19.09. Horne placed first in the district meet for the 4kg shot put. During the state meet she placed 9th with a distance of 33′ 5.25.

Doran was very happy with his placement but it wasn’t where he expected. He was hoping for a little higher, 7th place. He said that there was a lot more stress in this meet compared to the others this season. There are many great parts to competing in the biggest meet. Doran said, “The best part overall to the meet was getting to see people I knew compete.”

Davis was overall happy with where he placed; it was actually where he wanted to place because in first through fourth place were all seniors. He feels this meet had a lot more stress since it was the state meet. His favorite part of the meet was actually making it to the finals.         

Then he said with a smile on his face, “Next year!”