After a four-year hiatus, track is back at the Upper Campus!
Nearly two dozen Ojai Valley School runners traveled to Thousand Oaks on Wednesday for the first track meet of the spring season, and the first meet since 2019.
Covid has halted the track season for the past four years, making it tough to host track meets because no school in the Omega League has a track on their campus. Luckily, Coastal Canyon League has allowed Omega League to run at their races and made it so that the OVS track athletes can compete regularly.
Cold, windy, and a bit rainy for the four-hour meet, the OVS track team showed up ready to work. Although the weather was not very welcoming, the OVS athletes powered through and showed resilience, allowing them to establish themselves as a very solid team and making a great impression in their first meet.
Senior Hannah Little impressed the crowd and placed first in her heat of the 100 meter dash, and finished 22nd place overall. She followed that up with a 9th place finish in the 200 and she anchored the 4×100 meter relay.
“For a lot of our team this was our first track meet, and it was super exciting to get out there and throw our hat in the ring,” said Hannah.
Sophomore Prudence Currey Schafer finished third in the 400-meter run and was the lead-off runner for the 4×100 relay. Junior Karin Hahn earned a fourth-place finish in the 1600-meter run and a fourth-place finish in the 800-meter run.
All the girls put their skills on display and showed that their practice paid off.
On the boy’s side, junior Eli Roston, who began his running career this year during cross country season, took second place in the 800 and 1600 meter runs, and he anchored the 4×400 relay team.
Senior Zach Danino earned second-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdle and the 300-meter hurdle races. He, along with Hannah and Tigran Nahabedian, are the only members of the team who were at Upper Campus when the plug was pulled on the track program because of the pandemic.
Ojai Valley School’s athletes are hard workers, they show good sportsmanship and are always eager to win.
“This is the first time our athletes have stepped on a track in four years, and there is nothing like touching that surface,” said coach Fred Alvarez. “To be able to get a group of 20 kids on a track to try things they have never tried before, it was a special feeling.”
OVS track competes again Thursday, March 30, at Camarillo High School. The Omega League final is scheduled to be held on April 25 at Royal High School in Simi Valley.