It’s already halfway through the season, and Track & Field has no intent to slow down its progress anytime soon! Rain or shine, the team has competed in various meets and races and are undefeated in league with three wins so far!

Despite this success, the team is still pushing itself to run faster and train harder with the league championships and the CIF title on the line. According to junior Aaron Lee, the competition is “getting harder, with Burbank being [the team’s] number one challenge this season. Junior Brian Soong explained, “The league titles are definitely in our sights, but they are definitely still in contention as of right now for all levels as other schools, like Crescenta Valley and Burbank, have had many talented incoming freshmen and sophomores who are already participating at the Varsity level and can at any moment move down to Frosh-Soph or Junior Varsity and give them an edge.” He also revealed, “We have had a rough start to the season as we lost a lot of key senior athletes last year, particularly in the Girls Distance as well as Varsity Sprints. We definitely have a long ways to go due to the team as a whole being weaker relative to previous years.”

However, Head Coach Schultz has no intention of letting this affect the season. Brian said, “Schultz has been reassigning events to athletes as well as encouraging them to participate in events that they usually do not do.” Junior Nikki Wong added, “Our coach reminds us every day about the record that we have in our league and encourages that we should not be the year to ruin it. She also noted, “Many new athletes have been contributing to the team, and many people are making big improvements. Our goal is really to get as many people competing and running at their best.”

Many athletes have also been challenging themselves to surpass expectations and meet their team and personal goals. Aaron pointed out, “I have PR’ed in the 1600m by 7 seconds, and 28 seconds in the 3200m,” adding, “my personal goal is to go sub 2:10 in the 800m, 4:45 in the 1600m, and low 10’s in the 3200m”. As for Nikki, she said, “Personally, I want to run better than I did last year and make CIF as I have in previous years.” Likewise, senior Soichiro Nagao stated, “This season has been the most intense and thrilling season for me. It being my last year running for Arcadia, I have set my standards high and plan and finishing off my senior year strong; I hope to win league as a team.” He explained,  “Colleges are looking out for seniors running fast times their senior year so the pressure is definitely there every single time I race.”

Along with pushing themselves, the athletes have a a typical practice regimen that varies for each event. For Aaron, he runs “four to five miles before school” on doubles days, in addition to the regular practice time runs after school. For Nikki, she said, “My practice routine is different from other sprinters because I train specifically for mid-distance. I usually have my running portion of practice, then I have weight room for an hour.”

For Brian, who is a distance runner, he explained, “We usually alternate hard and easy workouts throughout the week and have a long run on Saturdays if there are no track meets that day. In addition, we have morning practice most weekdays.”

As for Soichiro, he specified, “Usually we run six to seven miles in the afternoon at a moderate pace to build our mileage, and twice a week, we’ll have a little harder workout involving repetitions at high-intensity speeds to prepare us for races so that we can run at that same speed. Days before our races, we limit our exercise and try to prepare as much as we can physically and mentally. Confidently, he added, “The day of the race is the easy part, it’s just a matter of trusting that all the hard work we’ve put in at practice shows.”

All of these athletes’ efforts have certainly paid off, especially with their three league wins so far. We wish you all good luck as you finish an already successful season!

Photo by Gavin Do