With the 08-09 school year coming to a close, many are starting to think of their summer plans rather than the happenings around Eastview. But what about the spring sports teams that are still working their butts off? With spring sports wrapping up, I've decided to look into how the track team at Eastview is doing.
Many tend to focus their attentions towards the Lacrosse and baseball teams but little at Eastview know that the track team is competing in the section meet in the upcoming weeks. This is a big time for the team coming up and I decided to get the scoop on how we're expected to perform.
If you ever ask around the coaching staff at Eastview for one of the most talented runners they'll be sure to point you in the way of Paul Thompson. This is Paul's Junior year at Eastview and his second year performing on varsity for our distance crew. I caught up with Paul and asked him about the upcoming meet.
He said, "I'm very optimistic of our teams performance at the section meet. This year our team has been very close-knit and spend just as much time having fun together as working hard for our meets."
After questions of predicted future and team bonding I asked whether or not there are any major weak points on the team that will be of detriment at sections.
Paul responded by saying that, “On any team there are those that don’t hold up their weight. This year there have been a few people that haven’t but I’m unwilling to point my finger.”
While Paul was able to give me a good look into the world of long distance track and field, Aaron Stevens was able to provide insight onto how the rest of the team is doing.
With most of our varsity team being comprised of the senior class, there definitely needed to be questions raised on how the nearing of their high school experience has helped or hurt the team dynamic in these last days before the meet on May 26th and 28th.
He replied,” Well it’s really fifty-fifty. Some of the seniors are taking the end of the year as an opportunity to work harder and finish strong while some of them are taking it as an excuse to not do as well because they don’t think it matters. But there are definitely more on the side of doing well for the last meet. I can say that because I am a senior, I am going to try harder than I ever have to make a memorable last meet.”
With some good input from those directly on the team, I decided to see what a former varsity track member thought of the generally optimistic view I have been receiving concerning the track team. I asked Travis Burkstrand, now a University of Minnesota track and field runner, about what he thought the team was doing well this year.
Travis said, “Well what this years track team seems to be doing very well is keeping consistent with their runners. I’m not too up to date on how the throwers or sprinters are doing but I know that the long distance runners and jumpers are consistently the reason for how well we’ve been doing.” He went on later to predict, “If I had to make one projection for the teams success at the next meet, it will be because of the distance runners.”
In two weeks the Eastview boy’s tack and field team will be competing at the section meet on e 26th and 28th of May. Everyone should go out and support the team in what is forecasted to be a very good performance from our boys.
