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The gun goes off. Muscles, hearts, lungs and souls perform at their maximum to reach the finish line. Legs and arms perform at their maximum to throw or jump with all their might.
Track and field is a sport unlike others. "It is unique even though there are team events, you can focus on yourself and not the entire team. You don't have to depend on others for how well you do. You're in your own world, in your own lane. I feel like I'm on another planet," said senior Kojo Obeng.
The events are individual yet the final score is a team effort. Sophomore Sheryl Pfaff said, "When you improve yourself you will improve the team...you have more points."
Even though track can be viewed as an individual sport rather than a team sport, sprinting coach Mike Schaefer takes the team approach to coaching. "Unlike some coaches, I like to take a team approach even though events are oftentimes based on individual performances, we work out as a team and offer encouragement and support which is so important to the athlete," he said.
To be a track athlete "you have to have mental discipline, work ethic, confidence and [a] spiritual energy you channel from the universe...[to] put it into whatever you want to succeed at," Obeng said.
From a coach's view, an athlete should have "self-confidence. It takes a willingness to examine yourself, accept what you find and make it better, which is the essence of what it takes to be a track athlete no matter what event or level of competition the athlete is at," said jumping coach Mike Aust.
Some athletes have natural talent while others have to work harder to be successful. Senior Chris Roewe believes that genetics play a big part of being a successful track athlete. On the other hand, sophomore Kim Kestner believes that one can be successful without natural talent. "My talent is artificial, I have to work for it," she said.
Different levels of talent result in different levels of success. "Success and failure is all relative to the individual. My experience has been if an athlete is just participating to win, a lot of times they miss Žnding out about themselves. If you go out to beat the competition, you might not do your best because your competition may not draw [out] the best. If you go out to do your best you may Žnd you will do something better than you have before," said Aust.
"When I succeed I feel great. It makes me feel like I can do a little better next time. If I fail, it makes me want to try all the harder next time," said sophomore Jason Norquist.
Sophomore Mandee Hoglund had a different outlook on failure. "Losing is depressing; it makes you feel that you're incapable of success," she said.
Sprinting
For training, sprinters "start with pre-season general conditioning: a lot of heavy work to build up a good foundation for performance. As the season progresses, we begin to focus more on sprint technique, form, and strategy," Schaefer said.
In order to be a good sprinter, one needs to "relax and let your muscles do the work instead of trying to work your muscles," said senior Robbie Schwarz.
Freshman Becky Adams added, "It helps to build endurance to make yourself faster and to have self-conŽdence."
Preparing not only physically but also mentally for sprinting events is important to the sprinter. Some athletes listen to music and get hyper such as sophomore Erin Strozyk does, while others take a different approach. Schwarz said, "I like to be by myself; quiet and kind of pissed off-that's how I run best."
The sprinters have been working hard and have decent results. "Coach [Thad] O'Dell and I have asked a lot of the sprinters and they haven't let us down," said Schaefer. "We have average talent but above average commitment. There are the exceptions, Robbi [Schwarz] and Kojo [Obeng] are perhaps two of the most talented and hard working athletes I've ever coached. That should lead to success at the state meet."
Jumping
Jumping requires many things of an athlete. "It's not just God given talent if you are fast like a sprinter and it's not just strength. It's a combination of strength, quickness and coordination," said Pfaff.
There are many reasons why athletes participate in the jumping events. Norquist participates in the long jump because "I like the intensity of it. I imagine myself jumping over something that if I don't make it, I'll get injured or die," he said.
Aust feels that the quality of jumpers have been good this year. "I am happier this year with the work ethic of all my jumpers than I have ever been...if present progress is any indication, W.F. West should have many jumpers in the post season," said Aust.
Distance
Training for many long distance runners begins long before track starts. "I start running about 2 or 3 weeks after cross-country," said Roewe. "The preseason preps you for track practices, which fine tune you."
Senior Derek Joliff thinks "the most important thing for a distance runner is genetics." Roewe agreed, but adds,"you have to have great work ethic. Distance running is really tough."
The mental side of distance running comes into play before and during meets. "I get relaxed and pissed off at the same time," Roewe said.
Throwing
According to Head Coach Don Lakin, the "most important thing is quickness and strength" for a thrower. "Quickness we can't do much about, it's mostly technique, but strength we can," said Lakin.
For a thrower, success is measured in feet and inches instead of minutes and seconds. "Every time I improve my throw, it's a reward for myself," sophomore Lindsay Christianson said.
Lakin believes that while this year's throwing team is "young and very inexperienced," they have "a lot of talent and they work hard."
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