Track and Field is a sport that, on the outside, seems like only a couple of events. When digging a bit deeper, however, it’s easy to see that Track and Field is way more diverse than many people realize.

It takes motivation to become great at anything in life. Track is an especially difficult sport to be involved in. Some team members have different sources of motivation to keep up their speed on the track.

“What keeps me motivated is going to practice everyday, seeing everyone work hard and working toward beating my own time and getting faster,” Sidney Crockett (‘25) said.

You can’t always rely on motivation to succeed though. Many of the members of the track team have to build up endurance as well.

“I like to watch professional meets on YouTube to see how it’s supposed to be, like the right techniques and it also helps to really visualize how far I could go,” Crockett said.

Although Track and Field are lumped into the same category of events, these events require a completely different set of skills in order to execute properly.

“I joined because I wanted to stay active and it looked like a lot of fun being a part of a big group of people all with the same goal of pushing themselves further and getting better at a sport,” Addison Roberts (‘25) said.

To continuously do better on the team, you have to work as a team to achieve the same goals.

“There’s always the little friendly competitions and wanting to be better that keeps me going,” Roberts said.

Although there is a strong feeling of wanting to do better on the team, students who participate in the field areas of track, aren’t always huge fans of running.

“I don’t want to run, I did it last year and hated it. Now I throw javelin, discus, and shot put,” Roberts said.

Javelin requires the athlete to throw a large wooden stick as far as they possibly can.

In Shot Put, you have to launch a 16 pound metal ball as far as you can inside of a 2 meter circle. Shot put requires immense strength in your upper half of your body in order to launch that ball the farthest.

Other Field events also require a lot of upper body strength in order to fulfill its maximum potential, like Discus.

Discus is quite similar to Shot Put, but rather than throwing a metal ball, you are required to throw a disk.

Athleticism and skill aren’t the only things you need to become a proficient and supportive team member.

“Just try to stay humble, don’t brag. Stay focused. Always warm up and stretch so you don’t hurt yourself,” Roberts said.