To The Finish Line!

The track season is coming to a close, and the weather has made the season very challenging. Coach Schutt said, “Every time you think you have the practice planned out, the rain sends us indoors to train and you can only do so much indoors.”

Most of the athletes have completed their season early due to scheduling conflicts with other activities in school, but the hopes are high that several athletes can qualify for state this year. Coach Schutt stated that, “if we finish with better performances at the end of the year than we had at the beginning of the year, we will have had a successful season.”
Sophomore Connor Swanson is leading in points for the boys and Freshman Kenna Borton is leading for the girls.

In the records categories, Coach Schutt said that “almost every individual in track this season bettered their own personal records.” Several notable records were achieved by Kenna Borton in the long jump, 100 hurdles and 300 hurdles. Beau Brown improved his own discus record and Neal Knutson broke his the previous 800 and 3200 records.

The girls sectional was on Friday, May 12, at Seneca High School. Freshman Naomi Sweeney place fourth in the long jump and sixth in the shot put. Another freshman, Kenna Borton, placed fifth in the 100 meter hurdles and jumped a personal best of 16’5” in the long jump and made the qualifying distance to go to state. Kenna will be competing May 20 at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston. Best of luck to our Newark participant, and congratulations to all athletes on a great season!

By Kyle Scott

Track 2017

Senior Kylie is doing 100-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles, and pole vault. She looks forward to spending another season with Coach Schutt and hopefully going to state for 300-meter hurdles and pole vault.

Junior Kyle, is doing discus and shot-put for track. He is looking forward to getting to the meets and having fun. Kyle says that so far they have a good start to this year.

Freshman McKenzie is doing 100 meters, 200 meters, shot put, and hurdles for track. She looks forward to running with all of her track friends. She enjoyed her first track meet very much, although she learned to dress warmer.

By Jeremy Van Heiden

Ready, Set, Go!

Newark's 2017 track season will start on March 9, 2017. This year there is somewhere around 20 or more people coming out for track. Throughout the year there are around 9 to 12 meets. According to Coach Schutt, "This is a guess because it depends on if the weather is nice during the season."

Coach Schutt is back in his second season with new assistant, Coach Biccochi. Coach Schutt said he has several goals for the team overall during the year. "For individuals in track, our goals are to have individual improvement as the year goes along," Coach Schutt said. "If each individual improves their times or distances from the beginning of the year to the end, then it has been a successful season. If along the way, we can get some kids down to state and place at state that is gravy on the potatoes."

Some practices will be held at Cross Lutheran gym, and they have equipment that Newark does not have yet. When asking Coach Dr. Schutt where practices will be held, he told me, "Since we do not have a track at Newark, we need to be creative. Winners find a way to train."

Other practices will also be held at other towns' track facilities and around the town of Newark. The first meet for girls is March 28 and March 30 is for girls and boys.

By Kyle Scott

Track

Newark athletes have been doing fantastic for their first track team. It is amazing how far the team has come from start to finish. There has been a lot of fun throughout the season with the athletes.

"The athletes who are dedicated about being at practices and take the workouts seriously have all improved a great deal. I am really thankful for those athletes and we will need them to be leaders next year as the program continues," said Coach McCoy.

From March to the end of the year there have been several personal records that have been broken. Breaking your own time, distance, or height is not a very easy thing to do, and it requires a lot of practice.

A couple team goals for the year were for the athletes to break their own time, distance, or height. Another goal that the coaches had for the athletes was to learn how track and field functions as a sport.

Most of the athletes have worked hard to break their personal record. The 4x800 relay team with Remington Kempiak, Kyle Scott, Antoine Dalle, and Chance Weismiller has been running the relay for several meets now. At the Yorkville meet, they broke their record by ten seconds. At the girls only meet in Oregon, there were eight girls, and each girl broke a personal record in at least one event.

There was a girls IHSA Sectional at Seneca High School on May 13. Newark came in sixth place out of the 15 teams at the meet. Unfortunately, none of our athletes proceeded to state. Kylie Eike received third pace in pole vault. She jumped 7 feet 9 inches. Second place got 8 feet.

"Our lives would certainly be easier if we did have a track, but I think we have done a very good job of getting quality workouts and learning without one. Doc Schutt has measured out a lot of different distances throughout the community, and we implement them well. We also take advantage of the facilities at Cross Lutheran, which is a big help. I know that next year there will be much stricter policies on not attending practices that will help the program have more successful practice times and really determine who is dedicated to the process of getting better,' said Coach McCoy.

This year has been a great experience for Newark. The athletes had a fun time in practice and still managed to get their workout in. I personally am very thankful for Dr. Schutt and Coach McCoy for coaching and Mrs. Navarro for making it possible for Newark to have a track program.

By Remington Kempiak

Track

The Newark track team had its first meet on March 31 at Plano High School. The boys took fifth out of six teams and the girls took third out of six teams. Newark did great, considering we are a little behind everyone else.

There are athletes in track and baseball or softball, which gets challenging for the coaches and athletes.

“As we get further into the season the baseball and softball coaches are going to help us make sure our sprinters are getting some sprints and conditioning in either before or after softball/baseball practice if those athletes couldn’t make it to track that day,” said Mrs. McCoy.

The track team is not where they need to be as far as conditioning. They have been working on getting the correct running form down and conditioning while getting the form down. Mrs. McCoy said, “Athletes have been working on Dynamic Range of Motion. We will get to where we need to be.”

Track sectionals are May 19 and 20 for both boys and girls. At sectionals the athletes are able to qualify for state. To qualify for state, competitors have to get the state time or the height/length for their event. If no one makes the time, height or length, and the athlete is in the top two, then he/she will still be going to state because they take the top two athletes.

Track meets this month will be May 3 at Yorkville, May 5 at Aurora Christian, May 7 the Moose heart relay meet, May 9 at Oregon, May 12 at TBA girls sectional meet, May 13 at TBA girls sectional meet, May 14 at Sandwich (boys only), May 16 at Oregon boys sectional prep, May 19 sectionals, and May 20 sectionals.

Come out to sectionals to watch the Newark athletes as they compete for state.

By Remington Kempiak

Track

Newark High School is bringing a track team to the school as of 2016. There was a paper that went around the school to see how many students would be interested in joining the team, and there were a ton of names on the list.

The track team will be practicing at the high school on the soccer field and in the gym, working around the baseball and softball schedule if the weather is bad. The team will be traveling to Cross Lutheran to use certain equipment there like the track for practicing relays. There will only be three to four times a month that Newark will be going to Cross Lutheran.

Mrs. Navarro and Coach Schutt worked hard to order all the equipment, except for pole vault. All field events will be available in practice but pole vault. Assistant coach Mrs. McCoy said, “If an athlete expresses a large interest in pole vault, they should talk to Coach Schutt or myself and we will try our best to make something work.”

There are approximately 30 athletes signed up. We have a good mixture of boys and girls, all ages, freshman to senior. “I personally have never started a track program from scratch before, but I know Coach Schutt has started successful programs in his career. My experience with track is as athlete in high school and junior high coach at Ransom Grade School,” Mrs. McCoy said.

As of now, Maya Wright is the only person who has offered to manage the team and help the coaches out with everything.

By Remington Kempiak