The indoor track team had a long winter season of sprinting, hurdling and long distance running, but as of Tues. Feb. 21, the date of the State Championship, their season has reached an end.

Indoor track’s first official meet was on Dec. 13 and since then, they powered their way through meets, making the top 10 in almost every one.

“[The season] went pretty well,” said indoor track coach Tom Rogers. “We had good individual performances and some young athletes [had] good seasons.”

Among these individuals was senior Laura Daly who took gold at the MCPS championships and set a new school record of  8.46.

Another individual who, like Daly, also broke a school record, was sophomore Emma Teal. Teal took third place in the high jump in the 4A West Regional Championship at Baltimore Armory and broke the school record of high jump as well.

Aside from these postitve outcomes of the season, Rogers still believed the team could have done better.

“It’s been kind of a down year for us,” said Rogers. “We didn’t qualify as many people for the Championship.”

He added that indoor track didn’t place as high in states, since they normally place in the top ten at the state championship, and this year they were ranked twentieth. In 2008-2009, boys finished seventh and girls finished sixteenth; boys finished fifth and girls finished ninth in 2009-2010; and last year, boys finished ninth and girls finished eighth.

Rogers wishes he could change some aspects of the season.

“If I could change one thing, it would be [that senior] Josh Ellis [wasn’t] sick with the flu during the championships,” he said.

Ellis is, in Roger’s opinion, the number one distance runner at WJ. Aside from that, Ellis also has the fastest mile time in the state.

Rogers loves what he does, but apparently coaching the team also comes with a price.

“The hardest part about [being a coach] is the amount of extra hours you put in,” he said.

Rogers reflected that being a coach is hard is because he can’t spend as much time with his family as he would like. It is also hard for the players, because they don’t have as much free time for themselves when they also have to train for the team. For Rogers and the players, though, the time and energy is worth it.

“I love what I do,” said Rogers, “and I’m sure the players do too.”

The results for Indoor Track can be found in the link below. http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/wjhs/athletics/itrack/