As the month of April comes, students enter a long run towards breaking previous records and qualifying for state. Meets are loosely spaced; and, on occasion, the track meets are back to back.

“It’s a little hectic, we have a lot meets that are really close together. It makes me tired and it’s hard to focus on school sometimes” Cade Paumen, 10, said.

On April 8 and April 9, 2016, the Lewis-Palmer track team traveled to Denver and Aurora to compete in track meets that lasted approximately eight to ten hours.

Traffic and a severe accident on I-25 left the highway at a standstill and took the team double the amount of time to get to the meet. Events such as the girls’ medley relay and the boys 4x800m relay had already taken place by the time the bus rolled up to the gates. This left a ten minute gap for the Lewis-Palmer girls 4X800m relay to unpack and warm up.

“We went straight from the bus to the field. It was very stressful because we had such little time to warm up, and we usually have an hour to get in dynamics and stretching. I was slightly worried that my muscles would be tight for the race since I didn’t get to warm up properly” Rebekka Olson, 10, explained.

During the meet on Friday at the Denver All-City stadium, 18 personal records were made on the boys team and six records were made on the girls team. The meet ended just before 10:00pm and the boys team took 10th place out of 37 and the girls team took taking 23rd place out of 36. The LP track athletes returned to Monument around 11:00pm, and they were asked to return the next morning at 6:45am for the next track meet.

“It was pretty difficult. I mean after every meet you’re pretty beat, but to go from one immediately to the next, it’s taxing on the body. Not to mention it hurts your performance in the following meet,” Lindsey Purdham, 10, said.

The Saturday meet was kicked off with a 3200m run and progressed through the day. The track athletes set new personal best’s, and both teams took 2nd place. It is still considered to be early in the season, and athletes are still finding what events suite them best.

“I would like to focus on the 1600m run and the 800m run. The coaches have been trying to widen my running options by placing me in the 3200m run as well as 400m dashes which I would have never imagined myself doing,” Purdham said.
There are four meets remaining that could allow an athlete to qualify for state, providing that the weather does not cause further cancellations. Athletes aim towards meeting their goals and  breaking times, heights and distances before the end of the season.