Through struggles have arised with all sports this year, including track, coaches and athletes are striving for improvement and competitive success. It’s always an upwards battle to improve and achieve success in goals within track. This is Head Coach Johnson 22nd consecutive year of head coaching for the HHS track program.
The track program has 65 students out this year, but Coach Johnson strives to have 80. “We would like to have at least 80. A great thing about track is that it is easy to measure your improvement and have goals that are tangible. For some athletes, they can reach their goal rather quickly, and for others it may take longer. It does not matter how long it takes as long as you are working to improve.”
“There are many athletes on our team this year that we are excited about. It is difficult to name them all. Some of the members of our team who have some of the best marks in the state include: Zaide Weidner, Austin Nauert, Carson Shoemaker, David Smith, Jaydon Welsh, Johnny Lopez, and Landon Eckhardt. Others that we are excited about include: Brady Creech, Austin Vandeventer, Cale Gowen, Matt Ochsner, and Nolan Studle,” Johnson said. Coach Johnson also believe some of the above listed athletes have a great chance of attending the State meet and seeing success there. Johnson has said that the team has eight returning state medalists from the 2019 season.
Johnson has stated that no real injuries have inhibited the seasons and team progress this year. The season has gone very well so far, and athletes have been working hard to improve.
Senior Mattew Oschner says the biggest struggle is making sure that younger athletes are doing what they are supposed to be doing, and remaining a role model they can look up to to improve on. 100 meter, 4×100 meter relay, and 4×400 meter relay runner Zaide Weiner agreed that it was important to have younger athletes to look up to.
Weiner also says that being able to bond, and even have a track team is his favorite part of the season. 800 meter and 4×400 runner Matt Oschner said, “My favorite part is knowing that I’m getting better and faster every day.”
Oschner’s most recent track meet was good as a large handful of athletes recorded personal bests in their events.
With the State meet just around the corner, Johnson is optimistic and excited for the singular goal of improvement to show. “[Our goal is] To finish as high as we can as a team at meets and at the same time position ourselves to be as successful as we can at the end of the season (districts and state).”
