Racing Into Spring

  It has been a good winter for the Pacific track and field team. Multiple records were broken, with many athletes setting new PR’s. It has been a showcase for the team’s deep pool of talent. 

One of the many promising athletes is junior sprinter Ally Hammond who recently added two new school records to her collection, breaking both the women’s 60-meter and 200-meter dash records with times of 8.73 and 25.13. As of now, Hammond holds four total school records, with her name etched into the record books for both the 100 m and 100 m hurdles. 

   Along with Hammond’s striking records, a couple more records were set during the indoor season. Senior Angelica Gatica-Gomez broke through the previous time for he women’s 600 m, and the mixed 4×4 has new record-holders; seniors Zion Booker and Angelica Gatica-Gomez, along with sophomore Kyle Woodcock, and freshman Ava Schreffler with a time of 3:98.95. 

   “I felt like everyone had their own special dynamic,” Booker explained. “And for us to come together to get a good time‒ I had fun. I am happy to get my name in there.” This record was set twice during the winter, further highlighting the team’s chemistry and the insanely fast times they’re able to achieve.

   Junior sprinter Charles Bennett credits a lot of the recent success to the team’s “next man up” mentality. “Especially now, I think, competition is a really important part, since we lost a key guy in this past year who was a really important part of the team,” Bennett disclosed. “Now everybody is really competing for who is going to be the next man up.” This type of mentality pushes the Boxer’s every practice to not only individually improve, but also improve as a unit. 

   Looking ahead, excitement continues to build as Pacific will host track meets on March 24 and 25, as well as March 29. These meets will provide plenty of opportunity for the athletes to not just get better, but for fans to show up and see the team hurdle over more records. 

This story was originally published in the Pacific Index, Pacific University's student newspaper. Used with permission.