Freedom High School’s Indoor Track and Field team has passed the season midpoint. While the name of the sport can be deceiving, don’t be fooled by the word “indoor.” Only one out of the six indoor track meets are actually indoors. Due to the lack of nearby indoor facilities, FHS’s indoor track team trains and almost always competes outdoors.
From temperatures in the low 20’s to the highest of 40 degrees, most indoor track meets are referred to as polar bear meets. During a polar bear meet, the temperatures are so low that all teams are required a certain amount of clothing to keep warm. FHS’s first meet of the season at Geroge Marshall High School on Dec. 1 had the most miserable meet conditions yet. With temperatures in the low 30’s, pouring rain and freezing wind, it made racing much more difficult. Despite the awful weather conditions, a total of 15 athletes from FHS qualified for districts, along with four first place finishes.
The second meet of the season was the Bobcat Blizzard Invitation which took place at Battlefield High School on Dec. 8. While it was partly sunny, the wind was vicious and cold. FHS had 12 more district qualifiers.
The most recent and successful meet was the Champe Chiller meet at Champe High School. The weather was in the high 50’s, and it was sunny. It was the first non-polar bear meet. Each athlete was placed in an event that he/she had not yet qualified for in the postseason. Both of FHS boys and girls team won the meet. The girl’s team won by 58 points with 93.50 points altogether and the boys team won by 30 points with a total of 70 points. FHS had 16 first place finishes and postseason season qualifications. Senior Garrett Dunn-Ford broke his own school record in shot put for the third time with a throw of 52’ 11” and qualified for states. Midway through the indoor track season, FHS has had a total of 39 athletes qualify for post season.
List of athletes that qualified for post season & their events:
- Madison Boyer-500m & 1600m
- Aislinn Garcia-500m & 1000m
- Julia Riley-500m & shotput
- Jessica Borden-1600m, 3200m, and 1000m
- Bailey Elliott-1600m & 3200m
- Samantha Tiong- 55m hurdles, triple jump, and high jump
- Emily Kuni-55m hurdles & 500m
- Ryan Borden- 1000m & 1600m
- Brennan Wood-1600m
- Cole Edwards-1600m & 1000m
- Josh Facey-1600m & 1000m
- Andrew Mingione- 55m hurdles
- Long Nguyen- 55m hurdles & triple jump
- Edward Laclare- shotput
- Sam Masters- shotput
- Preethi Ravikumar- 500m
- Madison Garcia- 500m & 1600m
- Karen Xu- triple jump
- Gabriel Turner- 300m & triple jump
- Sumedh Julapalli- 1600m & 1000m
- Subodh Julapalli- 1600m & 1000m
- Kevin Aviles- 1600m & 1000m
- Dan Gittelman – 3200m & 1600m
- Oscar Gorman- shotput
- Aiste Orentas-500m
- Carmen McCoy-500m
- Ashley Nguyen-500m
- Kathryn Ramboyong-500m
- Samy Lawson-1000m
- Marissa Cornell-55m hurdles
- Nina Hoyt- triple jump
- Marissa Bell- shotput
- Nicholas Chang- 500m
- Arik Walker- 1600m
- Saikiran Chandramouli- 1600m
- Ethan Curtiss- 1600m
- Zachary McDonough- 1600m
- Matthew Kane- 1600m
- Garrett Dunn-Ford- shotput (State qualifier)
Photo by Chong Chung.
Freedom High School’s boys 4x200m team of sophomores, James Field, Gabriel Turner, Tejarsh Singh, and Freshman, Nicholas Chang medaled at the David Cannon Memorial Polar Bear meet, by placing third overall.-
- Photo by Chong Chung. Hurdlers, Marissa Cornell and Karen Xu, race to hit the district qualifying time at the Champe Chiller meet on December 13th, 2018.
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- Photo by Chong Chung. Senior, Garrett Dunn-Ford, throwing the school record breaking shotput throw of 52′ 11″ at the Champe Chiller meet on December 13th, 2018. Dunn-Ford also qualified for states with his shotput throw.
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- Photo by Chong Chung. Senior, Shannon Carroll-Terry, flies through the air during the long jump, setting a personal record.
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