by Elijah Taylor, staff writer
The River Hill athletics department has always been talented and their boys track team is no exception, having one of the top performing boys outdoor track teams in the county, with a competitive meet schedule and a promising 2018 spring season in store.
Many of last year’s fastest runners are still with River Hill, but the team has also gained new additions to the competitive distance race, making for a good lineup of runners for this years track team
Often placing within the top three in county-wide meets, the expectations are high for the team’s athletes, thus their training is intense. One freshman athlete on the competitive distance team, Awais Khan says: “The training for the outdoor track season has been very hard, we have runs around 40 minutes, core strength exercises, and sprints every day.”
During last year’s outdoor track season, we can find some of the top performing athletes of 2017 in Howard County. Two freshmen stick out, particularly when it comes to the 1600 meter and 3200-meter events, Anish Nanjappa and Ryan Rose. In the 1600 meter, Anish Nanjappa ran the fastest time of any freshman in the county, and Ryan Rose ran the third fastest time. The two also claimed the top two fastest freshman times for the 3200-meter event, with Nanjappa even ranking third in the state for this event. These runners are now sophomores who are providing a strong foundation for the future of river hill track.
In addition to Nanjappa and Rose, this year’s team features freshman Joshua Galindo whose main event is the 1600m, junior Chase McGeehan who runs a fast 800m, and senior Brendan Fitzgerald who is good at both the 800m and the 1600m.
This seasons meet schedule contains four Howard County meets, including the Howard County Championships. The first meet is on March 21 and is a Howard County League meet held at Long Reach High School. After this meet, there are 13 more meets spread out over the next two months.
One of the senior runners, Jake Downing, expressed his feelings about the future of the track team saying: “the track team will rely on the leadership and skill of the returning runners” all of the excitement surrounding the track team seems to be leading to a promising season for River Hill.