The girls track team became District champions for the second year in a row when they won the Class 4 Dstrict 5 meet on May 13.

The meet was held at Washington High School, which senior Ally Roberts said made the win unique because they weren’t at their home track. Roberts, who placed third in pole vault with a height of 9’2”, also said that the team has put in a lot of effort to claim the district title again.

“It feels amazing to be back to back district champs; I’m so proud of this team and how hard everyone has worked,” Roberts said. “We truly are a team, everyone’s role is important and every point counts. Summit hosted last year’s Districts, so it was exciting to win a competitive meet not on our home field.”

Along with taking first place, the Falcons had 13 events qualify for the Class 4 Section 3 meet. Five individual events also placed first, including the 100, 200, and 400 meter dashes as well as the 800 meter run and 4×800 relay. Senior Ella Their said that the relay team, who finished with a time of 9:39.06, was thrilled to take first place.

“We were really excited. This year was probably our best year of winning, and we just went all out. We tried as hard as we could, even with the heat and everything,” Their said.

With temperatures reaching the high 80s, girls track coach Erin Hokins said that one of the main obstacles at the meet was beating the heat. Hopkins said that the team overcame the weather by being prepared for the high temperatures and properly hydrated.

“[The biggest challenge was] the heat. We were hydrating during the week at practice. We stress hydration with our athletes. We prepared by having water towels and umbrellas and all kinds of things, and we just made sure the girls knew ahead of time what to expect,” Hopkins said.

Sectionals were held May 20 at West Plains High School. Due to The Talon deadline, results from sectionals were unable to be included in this edition. However, Hopkins said that the coaches are hoping that each athlete performs well and advances to the State tournament, which will be held on May 26 in Jefferson City.

“We hope to get everybody through to State that is entered. We hope to have personal bests, and [to have] everybody be successful in their event,” Hopkins said.

Personally, Roberts said she hopes to make it to State, but her main goal is beating her personal record.

“I would love to PR in pole vault. I’ve been working towards 10 feet all season but I would still be ecstatic about a 9’6″ vault. It would be amazing to make it to State, but this is only my second year doing pole vault so I’m grateful to have qualified for sectionals two years in a row,” Roberts said.