Students succeed in May 5 track meet

Freshman Nathaniel Bunn runs to pass the baton to freshman Matthew Rush.

Adrian Kavazovic, Print Editor-in-Chief
May 25, 2021

Wednesday, May 5, the HHS track team competed at a home meet against Rockbridge High School and Spotswood High School. Senior David Beck, junior Kate Kirwan and freshman Matthew Rush were among the students to participate in the event. Beck thought that the meet went well, but that there was definitely room for improvement.
“I’m happy with how the meet went. Personally, there’s some room for improvement, but I have more than enough time to get to the point I want to be at,” Beck said.
Beck participated in the 1600-meter race and the 800-meter race. He believes that both events went well for him, but he preferred the 800-meter race because of the competition.
“I’d say both performances were pretty close. I’m content with both, but I’d say racing the 800 meter was more fun just because there was some better competition,” Beck said.
Beck’s favorite part of the meet was being back on the track after two years since COVID took away the 2020 outdoor track season.
“[My favorite part of the meet would] definitely have to be being back on the track and experiencing the track and field meet environment. It’s been two years since I’ve had the opportunity to compete in outdoor track. It feels good to be back,” Beck said.
Kirwan also thought the meet went well. She thinks she did good considering she had an injury before the season began.
“I thought [the meet] went pretty well. I’ve been injured, so it was nice to be back out on the track. That was my first race in about a year,” Kirwan said.
Kirwan ran the mile, but she typically runs the mile and the 800-meter race. She thinks the mile went well even though she didn’t have a lot of training due to her injury.
“[The mile] definitely was not my best time, but I think I did good considering how much training I had,” Kirwan said.
Because of Kirwan’s injury, she found it to be challenging to get back into the track mindset.
“I would say not having raced in a while [was my biggest challenge]. It’s hard to get back into the race mindset,” Kirwan said.
Just like Beck and Kirwan, Rush also thinks the meet went well. Rush’s relay team placed second out of three teams.
“I think [the meet] went pretty good. Our team finished [in] second [place] out of three teams,” Rush said.
Rush competed in the 4×800 meter race and the 3200-meter race. Rush found running the 3200 to be more difficult than the 4×800 because it felt more repetitive.
“In the 3200, it got a little hard towards the end because you’re running so many times in a circle and you get really tired,” Rush said.
Overall, Rush enjoyed being with friends and competing in the race.
“I liked running and hanging out with friends and competing,” Rush said.
One thing that Rush thinks he could have done better was starting out faster in the 4×800 meter race.
“I think I could have done a little better in the 4×8. I started out a little too slow,” Rush said.