Beginning in the month of March, Lewis-Palmer High School embarks on another season of sports. Athletes have flocked to join in on the annual spring sports such as boy’s swim and dive, boy’s and girl’s lacrosse, girl’s tennis, boy’s baseball, girl’s soccer and girl’s golf. Sufficient numbers filled the majority the teams this year creating freshman, junior varsity and varsity level teams. Unfortunately for the track team, there were very few members to join this year, especially for the girl’s team.

“This has honestly been the biggest hit we’ve taken since I was a freshman,” Madelyn Smith, 12, explained. “Normally it is pretty consistent with who comes out, but this has been remarkably and considerably low.”

This year, total enrollment for track was around seventy athletes; under twenty girls made up that number. Last year, many state champions and qualifiers graduated leaving Lewis-Palmer’s track team with open positions.

Track depends on the annual income of freshman, however, only one freshman girl, Aspen Phillips, 9, joined track and field this year. With nineteen events and a minimum of two representatives for each event, the eighteen girls will be challenged to fill in at least thirty eight available spots.

“The cons are just the competition. I mean our girls are going to be worn out, and are going to be just emotionally and physically exhausted during the races, and without more numbers we can’t really change that,” Smith said.

Though the numbers are small, a smaller team could mean a closer team as well a lower athlete to coach ratio. Smith mentioned that community-wise, the team is a lot closer, and it is easier to make friends.

“I think this might make us stronger because it is like a tighter knit team, and we’re more invested in each other,” Riley Harra, 10 said. “You get to become a lot closer to people and hang out with your friends more often.”

The Lewis-Palmer girls track team is aiming to find success at meets in the relays and the open races. State competition qualification is not typically by an overall team score, but usually by a personal time, height or distance.

“I want girls to recognize that they can be fast too, and that it can be a lot of fun doing track. I hope that more will come out next year because I don’t want the team to go away next year,” Smith said.

The girls track and field team flies into the season with a hopes of success and big competition at the Columbine Track Meet on April, 12, 2016. Five more athletes will graduate this year, leaving the girls track team in need of a higher enrollment for the 2017 track season.