The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

The official site of the Torch, the student-run newspaper at Glenbrook North High School.

Torch

Junior-heavy track team aims for conference

Junior Scott Thomas takes the handoff from a teammate during the indoor track and field conference meet on March 20. In the race, the relay team finished in first place with a time of 8:37.30, helping the track team win indoor conference. Photo by Caroline Smith
Junior Scott Thomas takes the handoff from a teammate during the indoor track and field conference meet on March 20. In the race, the relay team finished in first place with a time of 8:37.30, helping the track team win indoor conference. Photo by Caroline Smith

It has been 15 years since the boys track and field team has won an outdoor conference title. Head Coach Scott Lasky said he believes the current junior class will be key to reclaiming the conference title.

“[The] junior class has really been the main staple of our program,” said Lasky. “They’re pretty much the heart of the team. At the conference meet, for the varsity team that competed, there were only about five non-juniors out of 30 to 40 kids.”

Part of the team’s success has come from junior Scott Thomas, Lasky said. Thomas was the team’s sole state qualifier last year and is a captain of the team.

“He’s been a good leader and became a leader just from what he was doing on the track,” said Lasky. “The [work] he’s put into [the track team] is rubbing off on some of the other kids so they’re putting in the work with him.”

Thomas qualified for the state track meet in the 800-meter race as a sophomore, and he said he hopes to qualify again this year.

At a sectional meet, the top two finishers at the meet qualify for state. If a runner’s time for the race is under a predetermined qualifying time, then a runner who did not finish in the top two can qualify.

“I was third by five-hundredths of a second,” said Thomas. “It was extremely close but I knew I hadn’t gotten the second spot…My coach had [timed me at] 1:57.8, which was slower than [the qualifying time], so we all just assumed that I had missed it. We were waiting while they announced the [qualifiers] for the 800-meter, so when they announced my name, that was…really exciting.”

Thomas said he believes his experience at last year’s state meet has helped him become a leader on the team. He said the team’s goal is to send 10 runners to the state track meet this year.

Senior David O’Malley has been on the track team since his freshman year and remembers his first practice with this junior class.

“[The juniors are] just exceptionally fast, and they have so much depth,” said O’Malley. “At first we didn’t know they were so good. After a week [of practice], we really found out that they…were the best on the team, and they keep getting better.”

The team finished second out of 12 teams at an invite at Buffalo Grove, the program’s highest finish ever recorded at that meet, according to Thomas.

At a meet with Wauconda High School and Mundelein High School on March 14, the all-junior 4×800-meter team finished in 8:17.04, setting a new school record, and was invited to compete in the 2015 Illinois Top Times Indoor Championship. The relay team won that meet with a time of 8:08.93.

The team took first in the indoor conference meet on March 20, and hopes to bring that success toward the outdoor season.

“The entire team has put its dedication into [this season],” said Thomas. “It used to be that track was the sport [athletes] would use to train for other sports, but now we see people in the off-season…getting ready for track, not anything else.”