Five seniors participate in track this season and they, along with the rest of the team, are gearing up for district competition this Saturday. 

   Paul Hinz, Summer McCannon, Hudson Karr, Ashley Spry, and Logan Schockmann were the seniors on the team. They have seen many ups and downs throughout the season and their time on the team.

   Senior Hudson Karr was the only senior among 14 track athletes to be named All-Conference. He is on relay teams, including the 4×400 (2nd place) and 4×100 (3rd place). He also runs the 200 m dash.

    Karr has been running track since middle school. Karr’s favorite event is the 4x400m. 

   Karr’s favorite memory is, “when Grant Chapman taught me to do the lion roar in the baton.”

   For most of these seniors, their high school track career started with the COVID season. 

   “COVID messed up my freshman year and I actually ended up not playing the rest of my years with the exception of this year,” senior Ashley Spry said.

   Spry did track in middle school and freshman year, but stopped so she could play golf. Spry throws discus and shotput. Her favorite event is discus, even though she strained her rotator cuff. Spry got 21.53m in discus (6th place), 13.32m in javelin (12th place), 7.79 m in shot put (5th place) for results in conference. 

    “My favorite memory is talking to Jessie Bilderback about anything and everything because she’s my bestie for the resty,” Spry said.

   Mason Dunnaway, their track coach, has been coaching for six years now at WHS. Dunnaway said “I think we have a strong team this year and we have been working hard to perform well at the conference.”

Dunnaway is sad seeing the seniors for they’ve had a pretty good and fun season. “I am sad to see them go. They have been an integral part of the team and have shown leadership, dedication, and passion for the sport. I wish them all the best in their future endeavors,” Dunnaway said.

   Senior foreign exchange student, Paul Hinz, has many goals and wants to be the best he can. His favorite event to do is long jump, “not because I’m super good at it, but because I like jumping, itself,” he said.

  Hinz loves seeing everyone surpass their goals and reach their limits, he loves working on his technique and actually get better. 

   “My goals are being the best for myself, which means that I know there’s no way I’m gonna be as good as the others just because I never did that, but I wanna break my personal bests, throw and jump further every meet,” Hinz said. Hinz came in 9th in the long jump and 12th in shot put at the conference meet.

   Senior Summer McCannon has been doing track for eight years. She will continue with track in college at UCM. McCannon placed 8th at conference in the 100m dash, 8th in 300m hurdles she placed 8th, and 4th in long jump. McCannon does long jump, high jump, 100m hurdles, 300m hurdles, 100m dash, and 4x200m relay. 

   McCannon’s advice to the young track athletes is to, “never give up. The beginning of track season is miserable but after the first few meets you really start to enjoy it. If you can beat the mental barrier then you can make it. You just can’t give up.”

   Senior Logan Shockmann has been running track all four years in high school and also in 7th and 8th grade. Since COVID season, track has changed a lot. 

   “The whole atmosphere has changed since freshman year. I think people are more friendly,” Schockmann said.

   He runs the mile and the two mile. His favorite is the mile. His favorite memory was, “getting trampled by Hudson in the steeplechase junior year.’’

   All-Conference track athletes included Skylon Boone (two events), Natilie Banfield (two events), Angela Konopasek, Naomi Yoder, Daytona Kinnan, Jovi Robertson, Fisher Love (three events), Anthony Rogers, Dylan Elmer (two events) D’Angelo Ramirez (two events), Nate Banfield, Hudson Karr (two events), Mason Anderson and Kaleb Ragle.