Last week, after a long season of training, the Green Hope track and field team competed in the NCHSAA 4A Indoor State Championship. Members who participated had to clear the difficult standards for their respective events to qualify for the meet. Some of the Green Hope participants include Ellie Beck (‘27), Jenna Costa (‘25), Ivana Gomez (‘25), Cameron Gregg (‘24), Corinne Isaacs (‘25), Hanna Lee (‘24) and Emeili Tarpy (‘24).
The meet was incredibly competitive, as each team wanted to show off their progress this season. Many Green Hope athletes finished in the top 10 or top five for their event, however, the boys 4×800 meter relay team, consisting of Gabriel Cardenas (‘26), Dax Mahone (‘24), Seamus O’Driscoll (‘25) and Sebastian Percival-Shim (‘24), dominated the relay with a time of 7:55.99, beating the second place team by nearly two seconds. The relay set a meet record and is now seventh in the nation.
In preparation for the meet, the relay did 300 meter repeats and VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body can intake and use when exercising) workouts to practice a race in which they need to go all out. Percival-Shim says, “I felt that these workouts helped prepare us. I think we gained a lot more confidence when we all got through these huge workouts together that suggested we could all be subs too.” Cardenas agreed, saying, “I think training with the team, especially the other four by eight guys, definitely helped us push each other in recent workouts.”
Practice is just one part of the preparation, however, as Mahone explained, “I also ate well, slept okay, and tried to visualize all the possibilities so I could be prepared for the race.” O’Driscoll agreed, saying, “Eating well and sleeping a lot really helped.”
The relay all want to continue dropping their times and hope to race and win the 4×800 meter in the outdoor state championship, with Cardenas hoping to officially go 1:59 in the 800 meter, Mahone hoping to break the mile and two-mile school record, Percival-Shim planning to win as many 800 meter races as possible, and O’Driscoll preparing to go sub 1:57 in the 800 meter and sub 4:20 in the mile.
Now, the team is preparing for the New Balance Nationals Indoor meet at the Reggie Lewis Track and Field Center in Boston, where they hope to place within the top five best teams and maybe even win the relay.
