Track and Field is the biggest sport at Hickman High School, and during the preseason training, they had some big goals. Hickman is right in the middle of their scheduled midseason meets, where they have had the opportunity to showcase their times and get positions for the postseason.
One category that they have already found success in is the Boy’s 4x100m relay, in which the quartet of John Moss (9), Marcus Johnson (10), Langston Thomas (11), and Zach Wright (12) were able to break the school record. They ran a time of 41.93 seconds at the first meet of the season, the Como Kickoff at Battle High School.
“The school record was nice. We hadn’t had any handoff practice or any, really, relay practice. So we just wanted to go out there, run our best,” Langston said.
Along with breaking a record in the 4x100m relay, both Hickman boys and girls got on the leaderboard, winning the 100m and 200m on the boy’s and girl’s sides.
One of those winners was the aforementioned Langston Thomas who won the 100m as well as the 200m in a state-leading time of 21.86 seconds in the 200m.
But that was the first meet, and in the meets since, both teams have performed very well, placing an athlete in the top three of almost every single meet, even in the meets over Spring Break.
Another individual who has been consistently performing well has been junior Athena Peterson.
Athena specializes in jumping events, such as the high jump, long jump, and triple jump. Last year, she placed in the top three in both the triple and long jump at the state meet.
So far this year, Athena has been successful, winning both the high jump and triple jump at the Como Kickoff. She cleared a height of 1.65 meters or about five feet and five inches, just .5 meters off the mark that won the state title last year. In the long jump, she jumped a distance of 5.56 meters which is just .38 meters off the mark that won the state title last year.
When asked about what the rest of the season could hold and what could come of the 4x100m team Langston said, “Especially with more practice, more team camaraderie throughout the season, I think the sky’s the limit…hopefully, [we’ll] break the record again.”