Southern Lehigh Track & Field sprints into a new season

March 6, 2024

Junior Greg Rubino looks to overtake his Chambersburg opponent.

After extremely successful spring seasons for the Southern Lehigh girls’ and boys’ track & field teams last year, the team looks to continue their success this spring.

While the girls’ team has consecutively won the past seven Colonial League Championships, the boys’ team lost the league meet last season, ending their six-year streak. New captains now lead the team, and after a very successful winter season, expectations are sky-high, and the Colonial League Championship is back in their sights.

“While I personally want to drop time in all my events this season, the main goal as a team is going undefeated and winning the Colonial League meet,” senior Jack Inglis said.

Although many view running as a solo sport, track and field relies on runners, throwers, and jumpers working together to win meets. This teamwork has created a positive attitude and meaningful friendships on the team.

“My teammates mean everything to me,” junior Tyler Cramer said. “The camaraderie on the track team is really positive.”

The team shows this solidarity when they compete, with players uplifting and motivating each other throughout their meets.

“After a race, you never hear anything negative,” Cramer said. “It’s always positive encouragement coming from my teammates. It’s a very uplifting community, and it always feels good knowing I have the support of my teammates.”

While runners always appreciate encouragement from their teammates, they also want to support their teammates by performing their best.

“The team is everything; through individual events, we all contribute to the overall goal of winning a meet,” Inglis said. “Individually, I always want to do my best to not let my teammates down.”

Athletes consistently work in the off-season to improve their times and distances to continue performing their best.

“Improving myself revolves around my training,” Inglis said. “Off-season training is very important; playing other sports during the off-season helps keep me in shape, too.”

While training independently helps some athletes improve, others find more success training with their teammates.

“I try to run with my friends almost every day and strength train in the gym with them as well,” Cramer said. “We always try to emulate different things that we’ve done in practice, like how we stretch and roll out.”

After putting in a lot of hard work during the off-season, the team is eager to extend their impressive record into the spring.

“We’ve all been working so hard over this past year,” Inglis said. “With how dedicated each athlete on our team is, I’m certain we’ll accomplish a lot this season.”

About the Contributor

William Wenrich-Quinones, Staff Reporter

Struggling to fill his courses and looking for a fun elective with his friends, William Wenrich-Quinones chose to take Newspaper Journalism and join the Spotlight staff. Now, Will reflects on the time in class spent struggling to understand the “New York Times” games or CNN 10, as well as the fulfilling hours spent working on his many articles. “I loved it; I just got to do something I love with my best friends,” Wenrich said. “I also got to meet new friends and interview people I would not have met before.” In the short span of a year, Wenrich has contributed five articles, his personal favorite being “Artificial Intelligence impacts learning and education,” an opinion article about the influence of artificial intelligence in school. “It was something interesting, and was genuinely impacting myself and my classmates,” he said. In class, he enjoyed a work-play balance with his friends, the classes spent outside being a favorite highlight for him. Some of his fondest memories were spent in journalism with his long-time and new friends. “I enjoyed all the good times and laughs with my best friends [seniors Thomas Morris and Luke Fisher],” he said. “[I also enjoyed] getting closer with other classmates [including sophomore Avi Shah and junior Talan Canzano].” In addition to The Spotlight, Wenrich participated in Varsity Soccer, National Honor Society, Student Council and Angel 34 in school. He was also elected the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) president for the 2023-2024 school year. Outside of school, Wenrich is an avid pickleball player and an amateur ice cream connoisseur, with peach being his current favorite flavor. He plays pickleball daily, and enjoys good competition. His favorite players are the John brothers. In college, he plans on continuing his pickleball hobby. Wenrich will attend Northeastern in the fall and plans on majoring in economics. However, he is unsure if he will stick with this major as he thoroughly enjoys history and business as well. He knows how unpredictable the future is and accepts it. “I’m honestly not nervous,” he said. “I believe that everything will work out in the end, and worrying only makes things worse.” Throughout high school, Wenrich developed a strong work ethic and learned the importance of studying hard. However, he believes incoming freshmen should focus more on the fun in life. “Love life; you only get one,” he said. “Cherish the time spent in high school; it goes by so fast.”