Dominating Districts
The varsity track and field team heads into the postseason as they compete in the district championships
Junior Leilani Green competes in the long jump at Holt High School earlier in the season. At districts, Green competed in the long jump, 400, 4×400, and 200 where she broke the school record.
May 18, 2023
After a victorious night at GACs, the varsity track team begins their advance into the postseason, starting with districts. Districts is the first race of the postseason. After districts, those who qualify move onto sectionals, and then finally the state championship. Making it to state is the highest achievement most high school athletes can make and what most strive for throughout the season.
This year’s district meet took place at Timberland High School on Saturday, May 13. Liberty athletes competed in a variety of events including the 200 meter dash, long jump, hurdles, throws and many more. Throughout the day, records were broken, races were won and athletes outperformed themselves. One such athlete was junior Leilani Green.
Green competed in the long jump, 400, 4×400, and 200 where she broke the school record. The previous record was 27.31 set by Eve Shelton, but Green broke it with a time of 26.8. Green is the first female athlete in Liberty history to get a sub 27 200 time.
“I felt accomplished and relieved honestly. I had been working on getting my 200 time down all season and I finally did it,” Green said.
Although she broke a school record, Green will unfortunately not advance in the 200 however she will continue on in the 400.
Green wasn’t the only athlete bringing home a win though. In total, Liberty had a total of 4 1st place wins. Imane Larhdiri won the two mile, Jack Ryan won the javelin, Christian Williams won the long jump, and Meredith Washburn won pole vault. The boys and girls team also had a combined total of 18 events qualify for sectionals.
“Considering the weather delays and other chaotic things that happened, I feel that our athletes really stepped and competed better than a lot of other schools,” Coach Tutterow said. “We had a really tough district this year and to qualify that many is really impressive in my opinion.”
Overall, the team did a great job at districts with many athletes advancing onto sectionals and hopefully state. Be sure to check them out this weekend at Rock Bridge High School for sectionals.
