On April 13 Summit hosted the Annual Corey Siebert – Lakeshia Finch Coed Track & Field Invitational. This meet was named after alumni Corey Siebert and Lakeshia Finch, both of whom were in attendance at this year’s meet. The girls team placed first overall and the boys team placed fifth overall.
Boys track coach Rolland Garrison said this meet presented great opportunities for athletes of all grades and schools left pleased with the experience.
“It was our expectation that this meet would deliver the same high level quality of competition across the board, for both upper and lower class student-athletes, and with 17 schools participating, the Siebert – Finch Coed Invitational did not disappoint. All of the participating schools departed leaving many compliments on how well the meet was administered,” Garrison said.
Junior Reese Martin placed eighth in the 1600m with a time of 5:48.20. She said she performed well in her relay events and leading up to the meet, she worked on her pacing and will continue to do that along with finishing her races strong.
“[At practice] we worked on a lot of pacing for the 1600 to get more even splits. I’m happy with how I did in the relays but I’m a little unhappy with how I did in the 1600, but we still have time left in the season so I’m definitely going to work on the last lap and finishing strong,” Martin said.
Senior Ben Bordner placed second in the 800m with a time of 2:06.54. Before the meet, he said he prepared by making sure he stayed hydrated and it paid off because he had run one of his fastest times.
“I ran one of my best times ever so it was really exciting. I did a couple of seconds better than my last race. I expected to do pretty good but I could’ve done better by getting first. I hydrated a lot leading up to the meet,” Bordner said.
Girls track coach Erin Hopkins said the athletes did a good job at the meet and was grateful that it ran smoothly thanks to all the help they received.
“I think it went really well. I think the weather helped quite a bit. We had a lot of help from the community, the parents, and the athletes that weren’t in the meet so I think everyone stepped up and made it run really well and the athletes did what was expected,” Hopkins said.
Junior Cate Rossomanno ran the 4×800 and the open 800. She said she felt like the meet went very well for the team as a whole, but thinks she could have performed better. She wants to continue practicing to lower her times for the rest of the season
“Almost all the relays won, and we had a lot of PRs and won the meet. I feel like I did alright in both races, it wasn’t my greatest race but I feel like I tried my best,” Rossomanno said. “For the rest of the season, I’m gonna try to work on getting some of my individual times down before districts,”
For the rest of the season, Hopkins said she wants everyone to reach their best times to continue to compete well at state.
“I hope everybody achieves one PR for the season and I just hope we keep performing without injuries and that everyone enjoys themselves and that we do well at state,” Hopkins said.
Garrison said that as the season progresses, the team is preparing for champion meets by practicing well and sticking to the plan.
“Up until the month of May, everything we do is considered practice for the Championship Season and ‘they don’t crown champions until May’, so we plan to head ‘back to the lab’ and carry out our blueprint as it continues to work for us,” Garrison said.
