Fayetteville Fallout
Football and basketball season may be over, but the season of several other sports is just beginning. One of these sports is track and field, which kicked off in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on February 18, 2023.
The indoor track meet attracted schools much larger than Catholic High School, but that did not discourage the team. “There are obvious disadvantages running against schools that have 1,500+ students to choose from throughout the entire school,” said Mr. Ryan Forte, the head track coach. “But we don’t mind it. We show up and give it our best each and every track meet. That’s the good thing about track; competing against the best of the best only makes you better as an individual.”
The school mainly trains outside for the track season. It was a much different environment at the competition. “There are some pretty big differences between indoor and outdoor facilities, including a/c to suit the seasonal conditions,” said junior Michael Krause. The indoor track is only 200m around, unlike the 400m outdoor tracks. The curves on the indoor track are sloped, which can make it difficult to grow accustomed to.”
With the football season ending, junior Thomas Duch began preparing for the track season. With less preparation time, competing against some of the state’s top athletes was tough. “I prepared for the meet by going to Scott field and practicing my steps for long jump,” said Duch. “I only started working at it a couple days before, though, so I didn’t get enough training in. I didn’t jump as far as I wanted.”
Many enjoyed the competition, but some things go wrong with any big event. “The food situation was terrible,” said Krause. “We couldn’t have a team lunch because we didn’t have the funds, but literally, every other team had lunch from Raising Canes, Subway, Chick Fil A, and others. Our team was stuck with bagels and peanut crackers. I was nearly pushed to the point of taking some food while some teams weren’t looking.”
Duch participated in the 60m dash, which he had never competed in, leading to some confusion. “Owen Brewer and I signed up for the 60m, which we haven’t run before,” he said, “so Coach put our times down as 6.96 minutes. Our times were the fastest in the meet, ranking us numbers one and two, going into the race just because of the time [listed for us]. We were in the 17th heat, the last one, with the four fastest people in the state. I got out of the blocks, and everyone is in front of me, and they just keep getting farther. I ended up running a not-so-good 7.85 [minutes] while Owen, who I was trying to beat, ran around a 7.5. The winner ran a 6.98 [minutes], showing how fast the time was that he put down.”
Regardless of some of the obstacles the team encountered, it was still an enjoyable competition for Duch. “Even though I didn’t do as good as I could have, it was a fun experience jumping in the indoor stadium in Fayetteville.”
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