Track team ready, set, going

After competing in the all-Ontario cross-country championship last fall, Heather Dutton approached her coach about starting a Fort High track team.
The idea came after talking to some of the Thunder Bay athletes from St. Ignatius that she had travelled to OFSAA with who ran track as well as cross-country.
The Muskie team now has been up and running for more than a month to get ready for the SSSAA competition May 26-27 in Thunder Bay, with the top runners advancing to the all-Ontarios in Etobicoke early next month.
“I wanted to provide another avenue for the athletes,” said Doris Barton, who ran the Muskie cross-country program last fall and now is organizing the track team.
The club is made up of six runners, including three (Austin Zin, Sonya Schulzki, and Dutton) who competed with the cross-country team last fall. Barton expects them to be team leaders since they have some experience.
“My Dad runs a lot, so I guess that inspired me,” said Schulzki, who said she prefers the longer distance running to track. “I guess I like running long distance better because it gets me into a certain mode.
“This is just kind of a short sprint.”
The other team members, Melissa Calder, Brittany Shine, and Kerri Stinson, take part in other sports but have just started running.
Barton admitted they may face somewhat of a shock when they get to the SSAA competition, but hoped they will keep up with it to improve for next year.
Barton, whose background is in long-distance running, currently has the students training in weights and balance as well as running longer distances.
“They’re training in longer distances to build an aerobic base so they can recover faster and run again,” she explained.
The students train for a hour a day, two days a week, as a team and also are expected to do some work on their own.
Shane Beckett is helping the team learn shorter distance.
“I have a great resource here with Shane Beckett,” Barton said, adding he is helping the team with core exercises and things that are specific to track.
Each runner can choose three events to enter, not including a relay, with a maximum of two athletes in each event. The team still is deciding who will run in what, but the possibilities are 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1,500m, and 3,000m.
They ran time trials on Monday to help them decide which events they might want to race.
Barton said she wants the girls to compete in relays, but they have to decide who would run and who would be the alternate.