Winter Track Team Wins NJIC Championship Meet

Eastern Christian’s girls indoor track team has taken their inaugural season by storm, beating out 15 other teams to clinch the top spot in the NJIC Championship Meet, in addition to achieving numerous other milestones.

Among the more notable individual achievements, the 4X400 relay team–featuring runners Blair Bohuny, Erin Van Lenten, Kayla Van Lenten and Lyndsey Smith–has won the conference meet, placed second in the county, and taken top honors in the Parochial B State Championships. Long jumper Kayla broke a school record, while 55M hurdlers Blair and Erin placed in the county.

“I’m happy about the success. I knew how good they were, but we improved faster than I ever thought we would,” said Joel Apol, coach of the girls and boys teams. Blair added the running times mid-season are as good as the end of last year.

Although indoor track has informally practiced for years, this is the first season an official budget has been attached to the program, allowing the teams to enter more meets. Training includes a mixture of indoor and outdoor activities ranging from running to weight training to plyometrics–a group of intense exercises designed to rapidly extend and contract key muscles.

The program has swelled from a small handful to about 20 girls. For example, Blair, Hannah Postma and Hana Schwartz are new to the team this year. All three girls chose indoor track as training ground for other endeavors.

Blair added, “I did basketball the last two years. Track went very well last year, so this year, I thought why not be prepared for spring track? It’s hard to jump right into spring.”