Despite their small size, the high school track team has started the season strong, so far placing first in several throwing and jumping events and second in several running events.

“The small size is unfortunate, but on the other hand having a small girls’ section helps the coach focus on what we can improve on,” junior sprinter Lauren Dietl said.

The girls’ sprinting team currently consists of five runners and the girls’ long distance has three. The boys’ distance team is also lacking in numbers.

“The size of the team is already affecting distance, leaving us without a good number of free people to do the 4×800 relay,” junior Jacob Smithe said.

Despite the small team size, the runners still fare well at some meets.

“We haven’t been last, so that’s always a confidence booster,” Smithe said. “I set a personal record in the mile at the first meet, and placed second in the next, so that was exciting.”

Dietl doesn’t see the smallness of the team as much of a handicap.

“We’ve placed second in a 4×100 relay, which was really exciting,” Dietl said. “I’m looking forward to the meets, improving my times and hopefully doing well at districts.”

The team has several more weeks of practices and meets to go before districts come around in April.

“The beginning of the season is a bit of a rain-check kind of stage, where people are figuring out how fit they are and what events they want to do,” Smithe said. “So I’m definitely looking forward to some general team improvement in the future weeks.”

By Maegan Muir