Track season is finally here along with many people just waiting to run on the track and compete. The first track practice is February 26th at Edgar brown stadium from 3-5pm so be sure to show up. Anyone can join whether you’ve done track or not.
Track is a fun sport for many that is during the spring. Everyone is more than welcome to join with or no experience and you don’t need to be in shape either because you will be in shape by the end of the season. The first track meet of the season will be at Yakima Eisenhower High School on march 9th but in order to compete you must have 10 practices. The full schedule for the season can be seen on Athletic.net, select the state you’re in and then find your school. How practice is ran is the first week everyone will be running getting you in shape for the season, you will be running some 50s, 100s, 150s, and 200s. All running events are measured in meters so a 1oo is 1oo meter aka 100 meter dash or 200 meter dash.
After the first week is when we begin practicing other events like pole vault, long jump, javelin, and much more. How track meets are ran is they begin as early as around 9-10am and can end from 3-7pm. Usually athletes hang out at their schools tent or if they are throwers or pole vaulters they usually hang around in their event areas. You need to know which events you are doing before going to the meet because there will be an announcer calling the events and when there are starting so once you hear your event you need to be ready.
There will also be a schedule on all the events that will be called in order so if you know your event is starting soon you should start warming up at least 10-20 minutes before your event starts. If you are a distance runner or sprinter you need to know what heats are. When check in with an official they will tell you the heat you are in you can think of them as group so if you are in heat 3 you will be the 3rd group/heat of people to run your race.
Jesus Guzman, Senior class of 2024 said “Running the 400 meter and the 4×4 is challenging but I love it at the same time more people should try these races if you are looking for a challenge”. If you are a pole vaulter how things will work is once you are done warming up you will pick a starting height to vault it can be as low as 7ft or as tall 10ft or even higher if you are able to vault over it. The poles you use are usually 10ft or longer so you really need to know what you are doing. Once you vault over the bar you are done until the bar is raised to the next height and when that happens is when everyone has gone and vaulted over the bar or failed within 3 attempts.
Dawson Muller Junior class of 2025 “Pole vaulting is a fun event but it takes a lot of skill and practice to get good at especially when I am vaulting 13ft”. This is a little bit on how track works and some events are ran so if you really want to know more consider joining the team and just have fun doing your events.
If you are wanting updates on how the track season is going check out the Pasco track Instagram @pascotrack.
