Track & Field is without a doubt the most popular sport for students to join at Amador. Every February over 100 athletes show up to practice and compete in the exciting and crowded sport. For those students interested in joining Track & Field and looking for an event group to join, it’s important to know what each one consists of.

Sprints

The most popular event group on Track & Field is without a doubt sprints. Sprints offers a wide variety of races. This includes the 100 meter, the 200 meter, the 400 meter, the 4 x 100 meter and the 4 x  meter. 

“I’ve been doing track my whole life and I’ve tried a lot of different events from distance, to mid distance, and I kind of fell in love with sprints as I came into High School,” said sprints team captain Tim Lester (‘22).

The sprints event group meets everyday after school, and on Saturdays. They’re coached by the long-time sprints coach, Coach Barney.

“At Amador we have a really kind of special team culture… and sprints kind of has their own thing where we’re able to work out and also have a really good time” said sprints team captain Tim Lester (‘22).

Distance

Filled with hard workers and Cross Country alums, Distance is one of the bigger teams with more stamina-based events. There are three distance events: the 800 meter, the 1600 meter, and the 3200 meter.

“My favorite distance event is the 800 meter because it is a mix of speed and endurance,” said Cross Country team captain Robert Sitter (‘22).

Distance requires stamina and lots of hard work, so it takes a certain type of runner to be successful in these races.

“I think that someone who wants to join distance should be willing to push their limits to keep getting better and someone who enjoys the sport of running,” says Sitter.

Running distance events in Track & Field is highly recommended for athletes who enjoy running Cross Country or any sort of long distance running.

“I chose to become a distance runner because my first time running was sophomore year doing Cross Country, which is longer distance running, and I loved it so I decided to do distance events in Track & Field to,” said Sitter.

Jumps

Different from most other events, the Jumps team spends less time on the track and more time in the sand pits. Jumps is one of the funner event groups with it’s tight knit team and lack of difficult long distance running.

“I chose to do jumps because I liked the atmosphere on the team and it feels like less pressure than events I’ve tried before,” said Kiana Lum (‘22).

Athletes on the jumps team can choose from a couple different events to compete in, which involve technique and skill. These include the long jump, the high jump, and the triple jump. 

“My favorite event is the triple jump because it takes lots of coordination,” said Lum.

Hurdles

Hurdles is an event unlike the rest. They’re not just running as fast as they can, but they’re jumping over obstacles put in their way. It takes commitment and training to become a good hurdler, and hopefully not fall down. 

“I love it because it just gives you so much adrenaline, you honestly can’t feel tired during or even after the race. It’s so rewarding getting to feel yourself improve each time you compete in it,” said Sara Vannoni (‘23).

There are two races hurdlers compete in. There’s the 300 meter hurdle race and the 100 or 110 meter. The distance of the races and the height of the hurdles varies depending on whether an athlete is competing as a male or a female.

“My personal favorite event is the 100 meter hurdles because it’s a race that you absolutely cannot fake your way through. It requires a lot of technical skill in addition to athleticism, and it just requires constant practice getting over the hurdles and nailing your technique,” said Vannoni.

The unique event group is smaller than most. Those athletes who decide to train with hurdles usually become very skilled at what they do.

“Hurdles is hard to learn… but there’s just so many amazing runners out there and it’s so fun just getting to compete against them,” said Vannoni.