Elissa Stanley
As spring is being looked upon by many of the high school’s athletes, runners, sprinters and throwers take part in indoor track to prepare for the outdoor season. Regular track season (beginning the first week of March) is being looked forward to as girls indoor track has a good amount of athletes preparing.
Track coach Aaron Morris says the team has about 20 sprinters, 15 distance runners and five throwers [shot put and weight throw, not discus due to limited space] training this winter. Events taking place this winter are 60m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, 60H, long jump, high jump, pole vault, shot put and weight throw.
As said, Morris explains that throwers can not participate in some of their real season events. “Some indoor events are a little different during indoor because of the space restrictions” says Morris.
The indoor team competes at Kent State twice, Youngstown State twice, Spire Institute in Geneva, Baldwin Wallace and Mount Union. According to Morris, the season has been going smoothly so far despite the weather. “The season started out really well for us in the first two meets. The third meet was snowed out” says Morris.
Indoor track applies to the outdoor season by “giving us [the team] a chance to do a lot of things in preparation for outdoor track”. “It allows the athletes to prepare their bodies for the rigors of outdoor track. We use the conditioning and weight lifting as a way to limit the danger of injury when the intensity of training picks up in
March” Morris adds.
The indoor season is said to allow coaches to teach athletes how to do events that they may have been interested
in trying, but never done before. The team will work on technique with those that have done specialty events like high jump and hurdles and get a head start on the outdoor season. Also, giving athletes a chance to practice competing, both physically and mentally.
“By the end of May, athletes need to be mentally prepared to compete in big meets, on their own, in a strange environment, surrounded by tons of people in close proximity” says Morris.
Morris says the team holds a few athletes that have been performing particularly well this winter. Junior Aimee Grimm is currently ranked 11th in the state for the 60H as freshman Kirstin Spangler is tied for 23rd in the state for high jump. Senior Katie Hall broke the school record for indoor shot put at only the first indoor meet. The record was initially held by current track coach, Lainie Glasgow.
Grimm believes that training hard in the off season is “extremely beneficial by the time outdoor comes around”. Grimm has competed in indoor track for three years now. This year, Grimm is focusing on the 60m hurdles and the
400m. Grimm’s fastest 60H time is 9.78 seconds, as she hopes to break former hurdler Kayla Thompson’s 60H record of 9.16.
“The indoor season allows us athletes to compete in different events than outdoor allows, some of the races are
shortened and it allows you to work on the starts of the races, which are very important” says Grimm,