Sports
Voice of the North Sanpete Hawks
27 April 2021
www.nstimes.org
8
Many track students qualify for state
photo by Phaedra Lamb
Hope Christiansen jumps hurdles at recent track meet in Manti. by
Joshua Cox
The NS track team is doing well. Competing in six track meets so far, they have not only done well as a team, but also individually, because track really is a kind of individual sport. “It’s you against you,” said NS track coach Scott Butler. “If you make improvements through hard work and practice, the winning aspect just takes care of itself.” For a lot of the track members, this is definitely true. Tylee Henrie, a sophomore, broke a school record in the high jump, at 5 foot 1 inch. Laramie Roberts, a senior, is also doing well in the shot putt and the discus. With their scores, they both qualified for state. “I do a lot of training,” Henrie said. “Even though it sucks, it helps me so I can get
better and improve.” Because track is such a diverse sport, the training is different depending on what event you compete in. For Henrie, it’s practicing the high jump and going to the weight room to strength train. “The kids who consistently come to practice are always getting better,” said track coach Bill Pollock, “It’s fun to see them improving.” The team does have a lot of room to improve, and that’s exactly what’s happening. In fact, most members of the team get a personal best every track meet. “We have lots of brand new kids, lots of young freshmen,” Butler said. “So there’s going to be a pretty big improvement curve for a while.” But despite having a team so young, the future’s looking bright. “At our first big invitation-
al, at Snow Canyon,” said Butler, “I put four freshmen girls into a medley relay and they qualified for state, which is definitely not easy to do.” For those four girls, Ashlyn Anderson, Journey Toomey, Abri Benson, and Mari Briggs, their times are looking promising for years to come. But even though there are a lot of new students who are doing track this year and doing quite well, the NS track team is small compared to other schools. The track team has about fifty kids, while most schools have around one hundred kids. “There’s so many kids on the other teams,” Henrie said. “Then there’s our team that’s super small. ” Despite the small numbers, the team is bigger than it has been in several years. “From the time I started coaching track to now, there
has been an increase in numbers,” Pollock said. “So I’m really grateful to those kids who are willing to give it a try.” But why is the track team so small in the first place? “North Sanpete is still struggling to understand how doing track—the running, jumping and throwing—benefits all other sports,” Butler said. “So we don’t have near-
ly as many kids as we should have.” But despite most of NS not having caught on yet, the track team has done some incredible things along with qualifying for state. “A kind of a benchmark for track is qualifying for the BYU invitational,” Butler said. “The standards aren’t as stringent as they are for state, but we’ve maxed out our possible participation in that event, which is great.” They also expect to do pretty well at region, although competition is expected to be really tough. For the girls, our region is actually the toughest in the state. Delta is expected to take state this year, and Union, Manti, Juab, and ALA are also doing well this year. “We’ll be fighting and clawing for places in region to get to state,” Butler said. “We’ll do our research and place athletes where we think they’ll have the best opportunities for success.” Even with a difficult region meet coming up, track is doing well this year. With not many kids, it’s hard, but the team is making it work. “The kids competing are really doing well this year,” Pollock said. “They’re just getting better and better every week.”
photo by Phaedra Lamb
Freshman Ashlyn Anderson warms up for the 4 by 100 relay race.
Tennis carries on successful season by
Cael Howard
The NS tennis team has won a few games and lost a few so far this season. Currently at 5-4, the team still has a lot of regional games and time to improve. NS recently won their match against Maeser Prep on April 21. Top singles player Kasen Ericksen’s score for both of his sets was 6-0. “We’re good--we’re doing well,” said assistant coach Jeff Ericksen. First singles, Strait’s win to loss ratio is 6-3. Second singles Kason Ericksen’s score is 6-3. Third singles Spencer Olson has 2-7. First doubles Jake and Josh Cox’s score is 6-2. Second doubles Davin Anderson and Kaysen Smith are seated at 6-3. The varsity boys have stayed the same this whole season. No JV players have moved up to varsity. The tennis team has grown dramatically in size this year. With this growth, there are players from previous years and a lot of new inexperienced players. Luckily with the growth of players, assistant coaches Jeff Ericksen and
Ben Cox have joined to help out. “One of our strengths is our coaching staff; we have three good guys,” Erickson said. Boys tennis has grown in popularity at NS this year. The team has 29 players now. “We have a really big tennis team,” said sophomore George Swapp. With that growth, there are a lot of advantages but there also some disadvantages. For example, head coach Matt Braithwaite isn’t able to teach as many of the players one-on-one. That’s why they are fortunate to have assistant coaches to help with the larger number of players. An advantage is that the team has a plethora of different styles and good things they can copy from other teammates. Having three different coaches is an advantage also. The players can get three different perspectives on what they can practice on and what they’re doing really well at. The tennis players have a wide range of experience. From senior Davin Anderson having played tennis eleven years to some new freshman
players having never played competitively before. Each player starts the tennis season and leaves with an improved set of skills. This is the fourth season for seniors Olson, Anderson, and Strait; they’ve gained a lot of experience over that time. Strait, Ericksen, and Olson are the top three singles. Jake and Josh Cox, and Anderson and Kaysen Smith are the top two doubles teams for varsity. “It’s exciting to see the new kids come in and watch them go from not being able to hit the ball back over the net to being able to hit a ball right where they want it,” Strait said. The team’s leadership is in good hands, between the coaches and four team captains. Anderson, Strait, Olson, and Ericksen as team captains come to all the practices and get the pre-practice stretches going. They try to lead by example and do all that they can to help out teammates. When teammates hit a good shot in a match and win, they congratulate and compliment them on it. Even if teammates don’t do well, the captains will give en-
couragement and help them work on their strokes so they can win next time. “I try to give people advice on how to better their game,” Strait said, “but I feel like just being really supportive of every victory that your team has is a huge thing.” Tennis is in full swing and the players are excited to be able to play. It’s heading toward a great season with new players and new coaches. They really love the sport and have a lot of fun. The whole team is good natured and likes to work hard but have a good laugh. “Winning. I like winning,” Anderson said.
photo by Audrey Inglish
Kasen Ericksen hits a backhand slice against Union at home. Ericksen has a 5-3 record.
