The weather outside was cold and drizzly but Brooke was determined to her best. No matter what the conditions were outside, she would sprint the whole race. This was her only chance to move on to sections.

Brooke set her blocks and took off her warm ups. “One lap, that is all. I can do it!” she thought.

“Set,” the starter says. Brooke is ready to go. The gun goes off and she is the fastest out of the blocks, getting her a great lead. She starts out at a sprint, stays in a sprint, and ends in a sprint. The extreme effort was worth it. Brooke had gotten the first place gold medal and was moving on to sections!

The Cannon Falls middle school track teams have had much success throughout the 2015 season. Runners were out of shape when the season started in March, but now, at the end of the season in May, they are making it to sections!  The girls middle school team practiced with varsity and were coached by Coach Sampson, Coach Zimmerman, and Coach Swenning. The boys middle school track team trained separately from varsity and were coached by Coach Enrique.

“Coach Enrique is funny and smart. He knows what he is doing,” says Kendric Banks of 8th grade.

The runners’ first meet was in PEM on March 31st. Many runners were new and achieved best times or older runners tried out new events for the 2015 season.

“Our first meet was a great preview of our season, we started out strong this year and continued to grow each meet!” Coach Sampson states.

The most recent track meet junior high athletes competed at was a dual meet against Kasson-Mantorville. The end of the season concluded very well for all athletes with new best jumps, distances, and times. Multiple first place awards were earned by Cannon Falls middle school runners.

Olivia Thomley in the 4×400 meter relay and Sophie Epps in the 2-mile race, both of 8th grade, competed at sub-sections and the two placed third. This means that they will get to compete in sections on Tuesday May 26th in Triton.

“It feels really cool to be one of the only 8th graders going and competing at the level of sections! And also very frightening because I have never competed at a meet this big and it is important!” says Thomley.

Many 8th graders will be moving up to varsity next year but the middle school track teams will still be strong with the upcoming 8th graders, valuable 7th graders, and new 6th graders from the elementary school.

“I am excited for next year because we ended our season strong, although we were not able to compete at our last meet due to the weather, it makes me eager to come on strong again next year showing our continued growth,” Coach Sampson concludes.