After last year’s shortened season, the return of Roswell’s Track and Field team was highly anticipated. On Wednesday, the runners headed over to Blessed Trinity for the first meet of the season and then shortly after attended their second meet at Westlake High School on Saturday.

A lot of the athletes who participate in the track season in the winter/spring, also run cross country in the fall. There is about a 2 month break between the two sport seasons and athletes are provided with a workout schedule to stay in shape between seasons. When asked about the teams workouts and preparation for the first meet of the track season, Junior Gabby Gillespie responded, “in order to run at a competitive level at the beginning of the season, you have to be putting a lot of time and effort into doing the pre-season workouts”. When questioned further about more specific preparation for the BT Meet, Gillespie replied, “staying hydrated the week leading up to it and positive self-talk are key.”

Roswell’s first meet was a dual meet held at Blessed Trinity High School. The weather on Wednesday was a runner’s dream, warm and sunny with a light breeze. These perfect conditions along with some speedy times contributed to a solid start to the running season. Blessed Trinity’s proximity to Roswell High School and the usual friendly rivalry, allowed for lots of competitive energy that pushed athletes to do their best. After running at BT, Roswell Junior Gabby Gillespie said, “the competition was at a similar running-level so it was the perfect first meet”. Overall, Roswell dominated, winning both the girls and boys 1600m race, girls 100m dash, boys 400m dash, and the boys 110m Hurdles. Check out BT Dual Meet Results for more details.

Contrasting Wednesday, weather at the Westlake Meet was miserable. Rain poured down all day and was accompanied by very low temperatures. There were only 8 teams competing at Westlake including, Buford, Chamblee, Clarkston, Westlake, Dunwoody, McEachern, Newton, and North Atlanta. Junior John Aehl ran in the 400 meter dash and said “the competition was challenging and I am excited for more opportunities to race at future meets”.  Roswell’s boys finished 6^th at the meet and girls finished 4^th, with several Roswell athletes taking home medals. Check out Westlake Meet Results for more details.

Looking ahead at the rest of the season, Roswell will continue to have track meets almost every Saturday and occasionally on Wednesdays up until the beginning of May, when the season will come to an end. Spectators are allowed to attend the majority of these meets, however the amount of tickets being sold is very limited and tickets are usually just for family members of the participating athletes.