With practices just starting and a large number of girls coming out for the team this year, the York Girls Track and Field program is looking very promising. Over 80 girls have already joined, and this number is expected to grow even more now that many winter sports are about to end.

Many of the team’s star athletes are returning this year and are prepared to defend their titles and victories from the past season.

Senior Katherine Tomaska is returning for her last season of track after being a part of the program for the past three years as one of the team’s three captains. Tomaska has been an essential asset to the girls track and field program for not only the points she scores for the team, but the way she inspires and motivates the girls around her. She has lead the girls’ team, on both the varsity and frosh/soph levels, to countless victories throughout her track career at York. This year, Tomaska is determined to lead the team’s 4×800 meter relay team to the state finals and drop her mile time down to a sub-5:15.

“As a team, I really want our 4×800 meter relay to qualify for state again and place better in finals than we did last year. I think we have a really good chance at doing that this year because we have so many strong 800 runners, such as Lydia Hickey and Emma Kern,” Tomaska said. “Personally, I am going to focus on the mile and work on running a sub-5:15 or possibly a sub-5:10.”

Junior Nicki Anderson is relatively new to the jumping world. She started her jumping career more than halfway through her freshman year and even though she has less experience than most of her competitors, Anderson was able to accomplish a major feat of jumping nearly 5 feet last season and now, she has her eyes set on the state qualifying height of 5 feet 3 inches.

“I’m really excited to see what this season brings,” Anderson said. “I see a lot of potential with all of the new jumpers joining the team this year and I think that they will do extremely well in the frosh/soph division. Individually, my goal is to be able to jump 5’3” at the sectional meet to qualify for the state meet. I think that this is something that I will be able to accomplish because I am ready to put in all of the hard work needed to achieve it.”

Junior Sarah May may be known around the school as the girls cross country team’s number one runner, but she is also an extremely talented 800 meter, 1600 meter, and 4×800 meter relay runner. May was a part of the 4×800 meter state final qualifying relay team that took 12th place. She is determined to not only qualify the 4×800 meter relay for the state finals, but qualify herself for the 800-meter race and place at state.

“This year, I really want to work on dropping my 800 meter and mile time,” May said. “I ran a PR (personal record) mile time of 5 minutes and 16 seconds at the Arkansas Invitational before the season started and if I can continue dropping my time, that would put me in great shape for the state meet.”

Senior Molly Evans had an amazing season last year and has consistently been the team’s best triple jumper. Evans qualified for state for the triple jump with her lifetime personal best of 36 feet at the sectional meet. She has returned for her final season as the sprints/jumps captain, ready to take on the challenge of qualifying for the state finals and jumping even farther into the sand pit.

“For my last season, I really want to break both the school indoor and outdoor record for triple jump and qualify for the state meet again,” Evans said. “I have been working really hard since state last year and I think this is something that I’ll be able to accomplish this year.”

Although missing the extremely talented athletes that have graduated in the past year, the girls’ track and field program is showing a lot of potential for this season. The team is made up of many new and upcoming athletes that can be expected to fill the shoes of the girls that have preceded before them and live up to the team’s long-standing high expectations.

Sophomore Marissa Chavez proved just how valuable she is to the team during her freshman year. Chavez consistently ran on the varsity team in the 400-meter race and on 4×400 meter relay team and played a major role in many of the team’s victories. She was able to keep up with, and even beat many of the upperclassmen she practiced with and raced against, and is planning on continuing her domination of the 400 meter and 4×400 meter relay this season.

“I really want to drop my time in the 400 as well as dropping our 4×4 time,” Chavez said. “I really think that if we all put the work in, we can get our 4×400 relay down to state which would be such a huge accomplishment.”

Sophomore Bella Walker, joined the team later than her other teammates last year, but that made no difference to her performances during the season. Walker is one of the team’s fastest sprinters and was extremely close to breaking the Joe Newton field house frosh/soph record for the 300-meter sprint. This year, she is fixated on breaking that record and continuing to drop her time in all of her sprinting events.   

“I’m super excited to head into track this season and start training with all my amazing and supportive teammates and coaches,” said Walker. “I’m looking forward to being constantly surrounded by positive energy and a competitive atmosphere. This season I’m focusing on breaking a couple of my personal records and hopefully gain enough speed and endurance to break the indoor 300 record.“

Sophomore Abby Moriarty is a known distance runner, specializing in the 800 meter and 4×800 meter relay, but what most may not know about her is that she is extremely talented in the 300-meter hurdles. Moriarty currently holds the fastest 300 meter hurdles time from last season, despite training for distance for all of the indoor, and most of the outdoor, season. For her final season in the frosh/soph division, Moriarty will be focusing on her 300-meter hurdle race as well as dropping her time in the 800-meter race.

“Although I love running distance events, I am so excited to start to really focus on hurdling this year,” Moriarty said. “The last time I even touched a hurdle was at sectionals which was all the way back in May and I really miss it. I need to really focus on taking care of myself and preventing injuries because that was definitely one of the biggest setbacks for me last season.”

Last year the frosh/soph team took home first place in the West Suburban Silver Division Indoor conference with their win coming down to the final event, the 4×400 meter relay, which took first and secured the girls’ victory. This year, the girls are ready to defend that title and continue their winning streak into the outdoor season.

“We had such a great season last year,” said Moriarty. “We worked so hard and it really showed off.”

This season, the girls’ team is looking extremely strong, with girls on all levels ready to compete and show all of their competitors what York is made of. Goals and expectations are being set exceptionally high, but the girls are ready to live up to them and even exceed them.

“I have a really good feeling about this season,” May said. “We are all ready to put in the work needed to become a really strong team and I think we are going to see successes in all events on all levels.”