Bowie Track and Field team wins district for the fourth time in a row

The track and field program has had a winning tradition for the past few years. This year is no different. Track and field is once again district champs after winning the UIL District 14 Championship. Boys and girls won with 191 points and 198.5 points respectively.

Track has won district four years in a row. The athletes that contributed to this achievement have worked hard every season. Junior Claire Meyer held a big part in continuing this tradition, placing first in the 1600m and 3200m races.

“It’s definitely great to have continued to be district champs and have built such a strong team with all the other runners,” Meyer said. “We definitely have people aiming to beat us and that only makes us more competitive as a team.”

The athletes aren’t the only people that feel gratified of this achievement. Another big part of the success of the team was the coaching. Coach Rita Gonzales, Coach Dalton Pool, Coach Marcos Guerra, and Coach Branyon pushed their athletes to their success.

“Winning district is great for the program,” Gonzales said. “We kept our athletes involved with the program and kept them interested for so many years.”

Winning district is a big moment for anyone involved. Junior Anna Ippolito placed second in shot put and third in discus to help propel Bowie to first place. She is proud of her school and herself in their accomplishments.

“Winning district and area was kind of cool. You get this big trophy and it just feels good because you feel really good because you stay after school and you work and work and you get this feeling of accomplishment after winning,” Ippolito said.

Support can have a huge effect on a teams success. Junior Kasim Gonzalez attributes his success to the ones who supported him the most. He placed second in the 400m race and first in the 4x400m relay.

“My family has shown me the most support during my track years, but my coaches and friends have shown me support as well, I thank them in my success,” Gonzalez said. “I just hope our team can keep this four year streak going.”

Although they were successful as a team through the season, athletes still felt the pressure.

“A lot of the girls are seniors and their form is more polished than mine and they are stronger than I am, and when they throw further than I do I get kind of nervous and I feel like I need to throw as far as they do,” Ippolito said. “I would just feel intimidated by them with them watching me throw.”

Runners, similar to the field athletes, experienced jitters as well. Gonzalez describes the challenges he went through.

“During the area and district meets I was really nervous, I just thought I wasn’t fast enough to run in the races,” Gonzalez said. “But I got over this through praying and trying my hardest to win the race.”

Despite this, Ippolito got over her challenges through hard work and training.

“I did well because Coach Branyon, one of our coaches, would record me throwing the discus and shot put,” Ippolito said. “It helped because it showed me what I could improve on with my form.”

Preparing for field events presented its own challenges. Athletes had to train constantly to get to this point.

“I was in power-lifting so I was doing a lot of weightlifting and after that I was just doing track, I was going out to the ring to work on my shot put form and my discus form,” Ippolito said. “I was still lifting weights. I trained pretty hard. There’s a lot of competition at other schools so I had to work pretty hard.”

For other athletes, cardio is key. Stamina helps them improve performance on longer events. Meyer, who is a cross country athlete as well, describes her training methods.

“The training regiment was obviously hard. In total I run 50-60 miles a week, including a ten mile run every Saturday. I incorporate my training from cross country because the runs I do are usually more endurance and stamina based so it’s pretty smart to combine the two training methods,” Meyer said.

When running track, athletes employ specific strategies. Athletes utilized these strategies to help propel them to victory.

“At area, during the mile, it was windy so I kind of drafted off the girl in front of me so I can keep up pretty easily,” Meyer said. “In the two mile, I focused on keeping the girl that was in front of me and keeping her there and then passing her on the final lap.”

The track team didn’t stop at district. They went on to win the area meet. Meyer once again placed first in the 1600m and 3200m races, she is proud of her accomplishments.

“It was really motivating to know that I was not only the top in my district but also in the Austin area,” Meyer said. “Definitely gave me some confidence going into regionals and motivated me to want to prove myself at regionals.”

Looking forward, Gonzales wishes not to dwell on one victory, instead to plan ahead to future track meets.

“We need to keep focused. We need to get more athletes involved with our program and keep the ones that are already in the program,” Gonzales said. ”We need to train hard if we want to go any further.”