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Cannon Crompton/sports@cherokeescout.com The Tri-County track team works on their 200-meter run during practice last week.
Peachtree – The Tri-County Early College track and field team is looking to send athletes to the state meet, improve on more than just running and enjoy their events.
The Cherokee Scout spoke with head coach Mark Bolyard about his team’s preparation for the upcoming season.
Q: What are some of your goals for this season?
A: “Just improve. We’ve got a young group ,with some seniors mixed in. I’d like to get some athletes to state would be a good goal, whether that’s individual or relays. Just progress out to get a lot more athletes and different events.
“We’re going to try to get some in long jump and hurdles. We’ve got quite a few kids interested in shot put and discus this year. So just try to progress out and get some more athletes spread out in different events in previous years.”
Q: What specific things will the team work on this season?
A: “I’ve got a kind of a program I researched that’s going to try to work on more speed, kind of getting more speed work in with strengthening more than just always running. So work on their agility and strengthening with like, plyometrics and stuff like that, just to try to get more athletic development with some of these guys.”
Q: What will the team build on from last season?
A: “More just stick with strengthening a lot more. And just try to maintain the strength through the season rather than always focusing on the speed and running. Just trying to be more balanced as a program.”
Q: Who will be some standout athletes this year?
A: “Well Sebastian Clevez, he’s a senior I think he’s going to do really well in the 400 this year. He might be one that we can shoot for state. Landon Spies, Nathan Downs, kind of looking down the line here are returning boys that should do well. Lydon Raxter will do good in shot and discus this year.
“Girl wise, Fern Crayton, fully expect her to do really well in the 100, 800 and the 2 mile. Jaden Crocker, I think she’s going to surprise everybody in the discus this year. She’s going to do really well and has potential to go to state in the discus. Kadeesha Sudderth, she’s a freshman coming up. I think she’s going to do really well.
“You know, coming in new. We just got a lot of good young kids. So we’ll see how everybody comes in.”
Q: Are there any meets on the schedule that you are looking forward to?
A: “Well, we start off right away next week with the WNC kickoff, so there’ll be a lot of schools there. And then directly after that, the week after that is the meet out at Montreat, which is where regionals is. So just getting everybody going, it’s going to be a shock to the system right off the bat to go to a big meet right in the beginning, but hey, start them off strong and fun.
“That’s the fun part of it, I think is the meets. Getting these kids to go out and have fun, that’s really what I’m out for is for the kids to have fun. Get them out there, let them have fun on the bus, have fun with the meets, it’s part of the environment. And then having a big meet to me is fun, versus a small, sleepy meat. They run better at the bigger meets.”
Q: What will the team work on to prepare for the first few meets of the season?
A: “Well, it’s kind of starting off today. We’ve still just been conditioning and getting these guys kind of running and conditioning. So we’re going to start today just to kind of get a feel for where we think everybody’s going to be event wise. So we’re going to start working on some more running, sprinting stuff today.
“It’s getting some of these kids just used to what to do at a meet. What’s the order of events? How do I warm up? How do we pay attention to the order of events and then just seeing who we’re gonna get in events right now, and then we’ll start focusing more specifically on block training and all this stuff as it gets going.”
Tri-County’s first meet of the season is scheduled for Thursday at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee.