On April 10th, at the Area 09 & 10 6A Track Meet the Varsity Girls 4 x 200 meter relay race made history for Wylie High School, breaking the school record in that event. With a time of 1:41.85, Kennedy Butler (10), Jaida Simpson (11), Ronylese Hartfield (10), and Madison Kemp (9) collectively broke the previous record of 1:42.30 minutes.
“Whenever we beat it, we were all really happy, I know Jaida and Nailah were yelling, and we were like ‘What’s going on,’… it feels really cool, and I hope we’re up there for a long time,” Butler said.
While the relay team didn’t set out at the beginning of the year to break the record, once they realized it was a possibility this track season, they started attempting new records throughout the season.
“Building up towards the meets when we broke the record, we thought we had a really good opportunity to and so like then, we were just trying to work in like every meet, try to break the record until the area meet when we broke it,” Hartfield said.
During track season, they not only worked at track meets to improve their times but also everyday during practice to keep decreasing their times.
“Whenever we were in track season, he made us do flys, we always worked on our flys and our handoffs,” Butler said.
The relay race differs from many other running events, as runners must not only worry about their times but also learn their teammates’ running style and perfecting their handoffs.
“I would say it helped us, definitely get chemistry with each other and know each other, and better understand each other, especially on the handoffs and stuff because I feel like a smooth handoff helps the time improve,” Hartfield said.
With their hardwork and dedication throughout the season, the 4×200 team has cemented themselves in Wylie Track & Field History. The relay team continued on to qualify for this year’s regional track meet as well.