It’s that time again, Brentwood; the BHS track team is back and ready for action. But before we tackle this current season, let’s take a second to reminisce on some of last season’s highlights. The team sent one relay team and two individuals to the state meet. The boys 4 by 1 relay, led by Arris Harris, Trenton Mitchell, Jesse Lane III, and Logan Hawkins placed 4th. Demetrious Thompson and Kensington Curd also qualified for state as individuals with Curd being crowned state champion in her 3200 meter race. With both Curd and Thompson still on the team plus many rising stars, hopes are high for another return to the state meet in May!
As far as this year’s team, numbers are high. The team only lost 5 seniors last year and there are 13 new freshmen to add to the team. According to Assistant Coach Gordon, the newcomers have already made a good impression. For example, freshman Mari Goodlow has followed in her brother Demetrious Thompson’s footsteps by excelling in both basketball and track this year. At the track team’s first meet this past Wednesday, March 26th, both Thompson and Goodlow placed first in their 200-meter dash races. Besides the 200-meter dash, she ran the 100-meter, 4 by-1 relay and did the triple jump.
“I was very happy and surprised that I had won and very blessed,” Goodlow said.
In addition to the new freshmen on the track team, Coach Gordon believes that the sophomore class has some rising talent including returning track athletes Evan Goldman and Charlie Butler.
“So far this season has gone well, I’m really hoping to achieve all my goals and just to get better as a runner,” Butler said. Last year, in addition to running track, Butler played volleyball and ran a little bit with the cross-country team on the side. But this year, Butler fully committed to just running cross country and proved herself to be one of the top two runners on the girls’ team.
Coach Gordon also mentioned sophomore Max Torres as being a possible rising talent on the team. This is Torres’ first year doing track and he will be focusing on the field events.
“I’m very excited for this new sport and to show the team and our coaches what I can do, ” Torres said.
This year will be the first time in many years that the time will be having javelin, Coach Gordan has gathered up a couple of people to participate in javelin.
“I hope we pull out a couple of wins to add to our list,” Gordon stated.
At last Wednesday’s meet against St. Dominic, the boys’ team ended up pulling out 3rd place out of 7 teams. The team also had many first and second-place individuals win — the girls and boys 4 X 800 relay teams both got second place. The girls 4 X 100 got second and the boys 4 X 100 won first. As for individuals, Curd and Butler placed first and second in the 3200-meter race. Considering that it was the first meet of the season, the team did very well.
“There was a lot of team positivity, and I really just enjoyed the meets in general. I feel like everyone improved a lot since last season and have been practicing very hard so far,” said returning athlete, sophomore Dani Taylor. Taylor plans on running the 100-meter dash during the meets and hopes to be entered in some relays.
The track team is very excited about this upcoming season, so be sure to come to the next meet on Wednesday, April 2nd, at Clayton’s Gay Field!
