You’re standing on the starting line. Your nerves are wrecked. You’ve trained all winter, through rain and snow, for this moment. You look at your competitors; they looks intense. You are standing in a university arena racing against the best high school runners of Washington. The gun goes off. It’s an aggressive race, but you shine with a new personal record.
This what five Liberty long-distance runners achieved in the UW High School Invitational on February 4. The race was held in the Dempsey Indoor Facility, the largest indoor track in the country, and the meet was open to all high-school track athletes in Washington State. It gives them an opportunity to race during the winter.
The University of Washington holds the meet to attract fast high school runners and provide them an opportunity to race at a university track.
“With a satisfying 4th place, burning lungs and the excitement of a PR with not much training, I am excited and confident in the upcoming track season and my future of running in college,” senior Jake Knoblich said.
In the three kilometer race, Jake Knoblich led the guys in long distance got fourth place in his heat with a time of 9:05.26. Sophomores Luke Knoblich ran 9:22.65, and his teammate sophomore Rory McClelland finished with 9:33.84.
“It was really cool to get a time trial before the season,” said Luke Knoblich. “This race gives me a gauge of how to continue my training.”
In the girls’ 800m race, senior Dhamanpreet Kaur ran a time of 2:30.94. In the girls’ one mile race, senior Brigitte Takeuchi received sixth in her heat with a time of 5:11.99.
According to Kaur, the competition was more heated than traditional high school track meets.
“I was a bit surprised about how aggressive the race was,” said Kaur. “There was not as much space to pass people, and it was really easy to block people out. I basically got tripped in the first hundred meters.”
The long-distance racers have spent weeks with intense preparation for the race. Training includes weekly tempos, track workouts, and long-runs.
“I am training for the indoor meet by doing a 3 mile tempo run on Monday or Tuesday, some short fast track workouts on Thursday a 15 mile run at 6:30 a mile for 15 miles on Saturday ,” Jake Knoblich
In particular, Takeuchi is training with a high-school oriented track club called Speed Unlimited based in Bellevue.
“Training with a club brought me more comfort when I racing because I knew the people I was racing against,” said Takeuchi. “It was fun training with a group of people and getting to meet new runners.”