The track teams will be headed for district tomorrow and Thursday in Flower Mound, and the pressure has never been greater.
Even though the teams had a meet this Friday in Haltom City, district will decide their fates and will determine who goes home and who goes on to area.
“What makes track unique is it’s not what we’ve done throughout the season, it’s what we do next week,” new head coach Rory Durham said. “So you can kind of throw everything out the window and truly focus on what we do next week.”
This year, the meets and qualifications have changed, extending the route to regionals.
“This year they added [an] area [meet] instead of going straight to regionals,” captain and senior Kayla Hall said. “I think a lot of people are going to make it. There’s going to be a couple of people that make it to state level, and we usually make it to regional level.”
Several athletes have already recorded strong performances. Senior Malik Summers will be running with Texas Christian University next year on a full-ride scholarship, which is rare for track runners.
“He’s already signed a scholarship to run for TCU next year, which is very stressful because track scholarships are very hard to come by,” Durham said. “He’s very fortunate to already have that.”
Summers ran a 10.35 in the 100 meters at the Max Goldsmith Relays, a time that ranked among the top sprinters in the nation.
“I just got to stay humble, keep trying to stay healthy and keep leading my team,” Summers said. “I still want to go faster. I still got people in Texas that are running faster than me, so I’m trying to catch up to them.”
Along with Summers, others on the teams have had great accomplishments this season.
“[Senior] Ahkeel Guy, he has one of the top long jumps in the state,” coach Landon Wren said. “The girls are starting to improve and run faster than they’ve run and have started to peak at the right time.”
This season, the team got Durham as their new head coach, but he is no stranger to the school.
“I graduated from Lewisville and so did my parents, so I have some roots here,” Durham said.
Durham said he has gained the trust of the team by focusing on each individual team member, instead of focusing on the team as a whole.
“I really appreciate his honesty and coaching,” senior Bianka Glover said. “With him it’s a different change, and I really do appreciate all his work and care for us.”
Compared to last year, there have been less injuries on the team.
“We have had our few injuries, but it’s nothing that we haven’t come back from,” Hall said.
