As February rolls on, so does Trinity track and field. Over the course of this season, the Tigers have given their best, with the women breaking eight school records and the men breaking one.
The fun began on Dec. 6 at Grand Valley State University when seniors CC Gray and Nicolas Ladreyt broke the women’s and men’s indoor 400-meter school records respectively (58:25 and 49:46 times). The Tigers carried the momentum into the next meet on Jan. 25, where junior distance runner Josette Gurule broke the school record for a women’s indoor mile, coming in at 5:05.71, and first-year Emerson Voldan broke the women’s 800-meter record with a time of 2:21.89.
The team competed again on Feb. 8 at the University of Houston where more school records were broken. Senior Joy Areola broke the university’s women’s indoor triple jump record, soaring to an 11.87 meter distance and a runner-up finish at the event, and graduate student Danya Selber earned the women’s 60-meter hurdles record with a 9:11 result.
“It definitely took a lot of physical preparation,” Areola said. “Track is a long season. We start in October and we go until the end of May, so especially for people who have done this sport for a long time it’s pretty easy to get injured. But a lot of the time you have to compete through that.”
Two more school records were also broken at this meet as first-year Annabelle Lanik broke the women’s indoor 200-meter record at 25.57 seconds and first-year Halle Hamilton broke the women’s indoor 800-meter record with a time of 2:21.17. This marked the second time in two meets the 800-meter record was broken, as Hamilton beat Voldan’s time from 15 days prior by under three-fourths of a second.
The record-breaking success continued in Lubbock at the Jarvis Scott Open hosted by Texas Tech University. There, the team of CC Gray, first-year Halle Hamilton, junior Lilly Broussard and sophomore Annette Smith broke the women’s indoor 4×400-meter relay school record.
The physical intensity of the sport can be incredibly demanding, as some of Trinity’s record-breakers overcame injuries to earn their times. This included Nicholas Ladreyt who was recovering from a hamstring injury before his record-breaking 400-meter performance in Allendale, Mich.
“I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of shape I was in, but when I ran it I knew that I’d pushed and ran the race the way I wanted to,” Ladreyt said. “When I looked up at the clock and I saw my time, 48.8, and I heard all my teammates in the stands cheering for me, I was like, ‘Oh, I finally did it.’”
Senior CC Gray dealt with similar adversity before her team broke the 4×400-meter relay record.
“I was still coming off of an injury, so I didn’t run my best race, but my teammates all did really well as well, so I guess it was really fun to make that happen regardless of the circumstances,” Gray said. “Everybody was pretty happy on the seven hour bus ride back from Lubbock.”
Players must overcome adversity and push themselves to break records in any sport. Each athlete interviewed wanted to give a coach some credit for their accomplishments.
For Areola, it was coach Corey Wildman who helped her work back from a semester away from the sport. Ladreyt wanted to spotlight head coach Marcus Whitehead and his teammate sophomore Price Schultea who drove him to stay consistent and push himself. Gray gave a shout out to her teammates and coaching staff for helping the team mentally and physically.
The Tigers have already broken nine school records, and they will have many more opportunities to add to the list. The team still has 14 more meets this year and is only a quarter through the season. The Tigers’ next meet will be the CenTex Invite, hosted by Southwestern University on March 1.
