Sports

Voice of the North Sanpete Hawks

27 April 2021 www.nstimes.org

8

Many track students qualify for state

Hope Christiansen jumps hurdles at recent track meet in Manti.

photo by Phaedra Lamb

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 invitational, 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 nearly 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 encouragement 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 Siri Huntington Gage Cox fi elds the ball in recent game against San Juan at home.

by sIrI huNTINGToN

Th e runners are lining up. Th e tension in the air is so thick, anything could set it off . Suddenly, senior Gage Cox is using his hand as a microphone to interview people surrounding him about how they feel about their race. Just like that, the tension is gone and people are laughing right along with him. “From off the bat, I’ve always just known him as the funny, outgoing kid. He’s just always been one of those types of people that goes out of his way to make other people laugh and make people happy,” said Cox’s girlfriend Jasyln Dahl. “He’s one of those people that you know he will be there for you even if you barely know him. He goes out of his way to make people feel comfortable and make sure they are okay.” Not only does Cox go out of his way to bring others around him up, but he is also extremely dedicated, whether it is in one of the many sports he plays or in his school work. “He stands out and he really works hard at what he does. He wants to be one of the best and be the best that he can,” said Cameron Smith, one of Cox’s best friends. “He really tries to bring himself up and bring others around him up as well and help them achieve their goals and help support them when he can.” While Cox goes out of his way to reach out to others, he is diligent in all aspects of his life. Th is mindset is something that his family has encouraged throughout his life. “A lot of my family are really go-gett ers, especially my parents. If they put their mind to something, then they are going to do it,” Cox said. “My whole family has been super supportive of me especially with sports and the things that I do. Having that support system is really important and having people cheer me on and make sure that I get to where I want to be is really cool about my family.” Having a positive support system is something that Cox has not always had, but when he realized he needed to play for himself and not to please his parents, he sat down and talked to them about this problem and the result was a change for the bett er. “It defi nitely changed the dynamic of their support system. Th ey were defi nitely more positive and that defi nitely had a bett er impact on my gameplay,” Cox said. “I know that no matt er what I do, as long as I try my hardest, they are going to be proud. It was defi nitely a major turning point in my sports career.” Since then, Cox has really embraced his love of sports, especially baseball. He has become very dedicated, so much so that he won’t take himself out of a game even though he may be batt ling one of his many injuries. “I’ve never really been the type of guy to just be out because of an injury, so I’ve just kinda tried to play through it,” Cox said. While this defi nitely shows his dedication to what he does, it also hasn’t made it easy to do anything about the constant injuries as he is always participating in one sport or another. “If I don’t stay busy, I just end up loafi ng around, so it’s defi nitely good for me to stay busy like I have been,” Cox said. Cox has stayed busy by playing many diff erent sports. Some of the sports that he has played are baseball, basketball, cross country, swim, and lacrosse. Playing baseball has especially given him many opportunities to play diff erent positions, travel, and to meet new people. One of the positions that Cox was able to play was catcher, which turned out to be his all-time favorite. “I just loved it. It was almost like being the captain of the fi eld because you see everything,” Cox said. ”If the pitcher throws one in the dirt, you’ve got to block it, or if someone is trying to steal the base, then you’ve got to throw it. I liked making crazy plays, like crazy blocking plays. It was just really cool to be behind the plate.” Not only has Cox been able to play almost everywhere on the baseball fi eld, he has also had the chance to travel with his past two club teams the Blackhawks and SkullCandy, the latter of which was sponsored by SkullCandy Headphones. He also had the opportunity to play for a USA Baseball team which gave him the opportunity to travel to North Carolina. Cox has also had the chance to be in many parades while playing with SkullCandy. Before many tournaments he and his team would ride on fl oats and throw SkullCandy headphones and candy. Th ey would then get to go on stage and throw more candy, headphones and stickers to the crowd, as well as hold up their team banner. Because of all of the teams he has played for, he has met some really cool people, some of which he plays against today. “Some of the Juab games are prett y fun, especially because a lot of the kids I know are from Juab so I’m able to sometimes talk to them when they are on base,” Cox said. “Th at’s really fun to talk to them a litt le bit and play against them. So those are the funnest times, when I play against people that I played on a diff erent team with.”