The Track Team’s Trials and Trails

Jonathan Lafferty

A bus full of yawning faces of the Dalat ‘Treagles” (Track and Field Eagles) headed off to an internal track meet at USM on Saturday, March 11. Once they arrived at the track, booming microphones, glimmering trophies, and four other teams met them. The only problem? Dalat was not a part of this track meet!

“Not again!” Coach Grad groaned. “I confirmed with Coach Edman several times!” The track was taken, but this wasn’t the first time the Dalat Treagles had to unexpectedly switch venues. Two weeks prior, the Dalat Treagles had come to the same track right as the women’s 3k speed walking event had started for MSSPP.

Accustomed to change, the team got back into the bus and drove to a huge soccer field on the other side of USM. They unloaded and started off with the regular warm-up lap. Next they did their form drills, which look quite humorous to outsiders.  The track team has become so familiar with drills, however, that when Coach Grad yells nicknames such as “Boxer!” or “Penguin!”, no one is confused about what to do next. After the warm-up, they got prepared to run their different events.

Meanwhile, Bena Mauger (12) climbed up in a tree to get a better view of all the runners. Mauger is one of the fastest runners on the team, but he had to rest during this meet because he was running in the Spartan Sprint, a 9k obstacle run, the following day. After the meet, Zachary Montgomery (6), said that he liked running but it was hard. He had five events to run in, after all. When asked about the snacks, he said, “They were very good! I especially liked the egg sandwiches.” Parents coordinated with each other and brought apples, bananas, watermelon, granola bars, sandwiches, and plenty of 100 Plus. In fact, over one hundred cans were available for the runners!

The track and field team is special because it brings together students like Zach Montgomery and Bena Mauger. This mixing of grades is not very common at Dalat, so track and field is a great way to get to know students who are both younger and older.