It was a hot day in late May at the IHSA girls’ track and field state finals. Renata Wingert ‘19 walked up to the starting blocks to lead off the 4×400-meter relay. When the gun sounded Wingert rocketed off the block and 400 meters later, passed the baton to Maggie Caplice ‘17. After three minutes and 55 seconds of running, Wingert saw her team finish second at state.

“It was wonderful to watch as you hand off the baton and get off the track and watch your whole team go,” Wingert said. “It was the best feeling to watch the last leg pass the team in second and cross the finish line.”

With the outdoor season beginning, girls track and field is looking to build on the success last season as well as the cross country team’s third place finish at state.

“I think now that the team has seen how well they can do in a competitive field I think they will have a lot of confidence and will be ready to go,” Sarah Barcelona ‘19 said.

This year the squad has a lot of expectations. Last season the team placed 20th at state, with top performances out of Emma Fink ‘18 in the high jump, Sonia Slusarczyk ‘18 in the 100-meter hurdles and Emily Henkel ‘19 in the 3200-meter as well as a second place finish in the 4×400-meter relay. This year the team is looking to use upperclassmen experience to their advantage.

“I think the biggest thing is the confidence they have developed over the past couple of years,” head coach Greg Frandsen said. “It always helps because you have to believe in yourself if you want to win.”

However confidence isn’t everything; the team puts in time during the offseason as well as practices every day in a very competitive atmosphere. Despite the team members looking to compete at the highest level, they still look to have fun whenever possible.

“Track is super hard and the workouts are killer and all the time we ask ourselves why are we here,” runner Lizzie Scotty ‘19 said. “Yet at the same time we are always laughing and having fun.”

With a new season comes new beginnings and the team holds lots of underclassmen talent such as Kate Dickman ‘21 and Mia Shcwarz ‘21. However last year the team graduated a big group of seniors, including Maggie Caplice ‘17 who ran on the 4×400 meter relay last season. Last year’s seniors brought both a physical and emotional presence that will be hard to make up this year.

“The seniors last year were the main leaders of the team,” Scotty said. “We didn’t have a lot of seniors my freshman year so the class that graduated last year ran the show for a long time.”

The team has already kicked off the season with a meet against Lake Zurich, Lake Park and Marist on Feb 10 with a winning score of 71 points. The team’s biggest meets include the York invite on March 3.