Warren County High School’s 4x800 meter relay team has sprinted its way into the school record book and run to an 11th place finish in last week’s state track meet.
The relay team has reached the finish line for this season, but is already looking toward the starting block next year with three of its four members returning. There are high hopes this year’s team can pass the baton, so to speak, to an even faster team next season.
“We’re all very anxious to see what these guys can do next year,” said Tom Moore, who coaches the track team with Carol Nelson. “We’re excited about the team in general. We want to make track a cool thing to do.”
The 4x800 meter relay team certainly made track a fast thing to do. This team featured Jacob Baehman, Paxton Smith, Grant Hitchcock and Christian Locke. Only Baehman was a senior.
“It’s going to be hard to train someone to run as fast as Jacob did,” said Paxton, who will be a senior next year.
However, team members are confident they can continue to make strides. All three returning members are running cross country, which competes in the fall. This will keep them in top running shape before track season ever arrives.
Running an 800-meter race is a different animal. It’s two laps around the track, a distance short enough to make it nearly a sprint, but long enough to make it a battle of endurance.
“You’re out of breath the whole time,” said Paxton.
Added Grant, “It’s a tough race to pace for. We’d do sprints and distance work to prepare for it.”
The runners said competing in the state track meet provided some anxious moments leading up to the race.
“It was a different feel than any of our other races,” said Paxton. “Usually we’re up against only a couple of good teams and we know the other teams will die out. The state meet wasn’t like that. I was real nervous about an hour or two before the race, but once you started running none of that mattered. The nerves went away.”
Grant says Warren County has some other strong runners on the team and some rising stars coming up from middle school. He’s confident one of them can fill Baehman’s spot as the relay team dashes into next season.
The team shattered record after record, posting a time of 9:06 in its first race this season and dropping that time all the way down to 8:16 in the sectional meet.
Team members can be encouraged to know they are among the fastest in the state – with perhaps an even faster future to come.