The boys’ and girls’ track team is like a cake.  Though it consists of random individual ingredients, each one plays an important role in creating a superb final product.

Each ingredient has different but vital responsibilities within the team. Every player holds diverse strengths, be it in long distance, sprints, relays, pole vaulting, long jump, or field events.

With a fewer number of players compared to previous years, one would think the team would be at a disadvantage, but it is quite the opposite. Though its numbers may be low, the talent within each of the individual runners is high.

 “This year we have one of the strongest track teams Greenhill has ever had,” said senior co-captain JP Chilton. “One of our greatest strengths is that we have people competing at a high level in every event, especially
the sprinters.”

The season is well on its way with four meets completed as of March 27: the Greenhill Relays, the Liberty Christian Invitational, Richardson Invitational, and the St. Mark’s Invitational/Jesuit Relays.

So far this season, the boys’ team’s strength lies with its short-distance runners; Greenhill is third within the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC) teams for the 4x400m and first in the 4x100m. The team consists of seniors Tarek Chehabi and Barnik Saha and juniors Faris Chehabi and Casey Kassem.

For the girls, their strength is pole vaulting and long distance. At the Liberty Christian Invitational on March 5, junior Olivia Nicolais broke the pole vaulting record when she jumped 10 feet 10 inches.

Additionally, junior Chelsey Sveinsson, on the girls’ long distance team, is one of the fastest runners at her level.

“It’s really the people who are trying their hardest and winning events who are the center and the hearts of the team,” said Stacey Johnson, Boys’ and Girls’ Track Head Coach.

The aptitude within the team has led to success early in the season as they prepare for the SPC Championships on April 29-30.

However, there is not much competitive opportunity as the team only has four meets left before the Championships. 

The majority of its growth will have to come in between the meets during practice.

With so few meets, the runners have to hold nothing back and make the most of each opportunity to compete.

“First of all, everyone has to make sure to practice hard in between meets,” Olivia said. “Also, when we get there, everyone needs to be completely warm and ready to compete because if you slack off at a meet, you are wasting a valuable opportunity to mimic what it will be like at SPC.”

With such a well-rounded team, there is high hope among the runners that the boys’ team will go on to win SPC.

Based on their performances in meets, they have the potential to achieve this goal, but according to JP, knowing that they do is what sets them back from getting first place.

“Our biggest competition, to be honest, is ourselves,” JP said. “At times we have had poor work ethic and already believe we have the SPC title. Because of this we have gained arrogance knowing we are the favorites, which has definitely affected our work ethic.”

With the season already wrapping up, hopes are high that this year’s cake will be sweet enough to take home an SPC win.