The track and field teams participated in the Corey Siebert Invitational on April 16, with girls varsity placing second.

This year, teams from 20 different schools participated in the 18th annual invitational, which consisted of 19 different events. Along with its size and being the only home meet, girls track coach Erin Hopkins said that the event is special because it honors Seibert, an alum who helped plan the first Summit Invitational. The meet was named in his memory after he passed away due to cancer in 2004.

“It’s the only home meet that we host, and it’s one of the only where we have JV and varsity competing , so it’s a huge undertaking. It’s a huge meet, and it honors Corey Seibert, a Summit athlete,” Hopkins said.

The varsity boys team beat their season record in the 4×200 and 4×100 relays with times of 1:34.54 and 44.39 seconds, respectively. They also celebrated individual victories, such as the first place performances of senior Drew Krobath in the 400 meter dash with a time of 50.76, seconds and javelin, throwing 46.45 meters. Overall, the girls team took second, winning the 4×800 meter relay with a time of 10:17.63 seconds and javelin with a distance of 34.45 meters. Senior Claire Pelchman, who ran the 4×800 and the 800 meter race, said that despite not getting first, the girls are happy with their scores, especially since the meet hasn’t taken place since 2019.

 “I think that our team performed well. Obviously, everyone’s goal as a team is to get first and we came in second, but the whole team is happy with that performance just because we didn’t have a Corey Siebert meet the last few years,” Pelchman said.

After sports restrictions due to COVID-19 for the last two years, boys head coach Rolland Garrison said that they needed to start teaching many events from the ground up, and while there are still aspects they need to improve on, the teams have come a long way.

“We, like everyone else, have basically had to start from scratch in terms of the teaching of the 19 events,” Garrison said. “We are seeing constant improvement across all of the events, and while we are pleased, we realize that there always remains room for more improvement.” 

For JV, the boys ranked first overall, winning the 4×200 and 4×100 meter relays with times of 1:36.61 and 46.34 seconds, as well as pole vault with 2.9 meters, shot put with a 11.47 meter throw , discus with a 35.49 meter throw, and javelin with a 42.3 meter throw. The girl’s JV team won multiple events, finishing the 100 meter dash in 13.92 seconds, 1600 meter run in 5:38.99 seconds, 100 meter hurdles in 16.01 seconds, and the 4×800 meter relay in 11:00.96 seconds, ranking second overall. Sophomore Shea Turner, who ran the 100 meter dash,  said that the team’s ranking at such a large event represents the team’s developments throughout the season. She said she hopes that they will be able to improve even more before districts, which are scheduled for May 15.

“There were a bunch of teams there and we ended up getting second in both JV and varsity so I think that both teams came very far this season. We still have a few weeks left until districts so we can improve more, but I think overall we did good,” Turner said.