Sprinting into spring: Vikings track races into the season
Now that winter has passed the baton to spring, the small but mighty Wareham High School track team has jumped off the blocks into their season.
The team's season kicked off Tuesday, April 1 in a home meet against Cape Cod Regional Technical High School. The girls found themselves on the winning side in their meet but the boys fell short by just a few points.
"We had some kids in some brand new events and I think if the boys saw this team later in the year we would have won," said girls and boys team head coach Chris Gardner.
Gardner said the track program this year is small, with only about 50 kids participating between both the boys and girls teams. He added that there are events the team does not participate in due to a lack of numbers.
"We don't have a huge distance squad, especially on the boys' side," he said. "But our sprints and jumps are always good and our field events are solid."
The Vikings are coming off a strong 2024 campaign in which they saw a number of personal records broken and sent several students to the state championship meet.
Sophomore Ryland Potter said many of the team’s returning members continued to train to over the summer to try and continue the success the team found last season.
"We've just kept practicing and we keep trying to get better and better every chance that we get," Potter said.
Along with the returning members, Gardner said there are many new members of the team who have already made an impact in the early stages of the season.
"Some of our biggest stars are new people that we are going to be depending on along with some of the older kids," Gardner said.
He added that the small team which has a range of experience has a good chance at putting together a strong season.
"The boys will definitely win a couple meets and the girls have a good chance at winning all of their meets," Gardner said.