By David Zheng
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The women’s track team’s season is nearing its end, as the team is practicing hard to prepare for the tournament competition that’s right around the corner. According to Head Coach Tim Mylin, the Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference (MIC) is Saturday, and the County meet is May 8.

Mylin said he viewed the MIC and County meets as stepping stones for the team to get to the State meet, as they will serve as a gauge for how the team will fare against some of the better teams in the state. “Obviously in our own Hamilton County we’ve got some fabulous teams, and as far as I’m concerned, the MIC is the strongest conference in the state,” Mylin said. “It’s like a little State meet for us because we’re competing against some of the powerhouses in the state, like North Central, Warren Central and Ben Davis.”

Taylor Lampe, varsity jumper and sophomore, also agreed with Mylin in that the MIC and County meets are important meets for the team. “Both of those meets have very strong local teams competing,” Lampe said. “They will be good practice for the State meet as well as give us an idea of where we need to improve as a team.”

As for the season so far, Mylin said the team has just been taking it one step at a time. “We think we’re going to be very competitive, and we certainly think that we’re a Top 10 team,” Mylin said. “If things go well for us and we continue to improve and we don’t have any injuries, I think we’re going to have a shot possibly at the overall title.”

According to Mylin, the team has been successful so far, as it finished second at the indoor State meet at Purdue University and won the indoor MIC. The team has also won outdoor meets against Hamilton Southeastern, Ben Davis and Pike.

“We don’t want to jinx anything too early, but our chances are better than they have been in a while,” Lampe said. “We have a really strong mix of girls, so we just need to improve as the season progresses.” 

Mylin said that out of the 16 events at the State meet, the team hopes to qualify people through to the State meet in six or eight of them. “Obviously we’d like to qualify someone every event, but realistically that’s probably not going to happen,” Mylin said. “If we look at the talent we have right now compared to the rest of the state, I think we have a good shot at qualifying in a lot of the events though. We can only enter two (per event) in the tournament so we’re just hoping a lot of our kids make it to the State meet.”

Mylin said the team has a good chance at doing that, as it has a lot of depth and great senior leadership, and has been improving each week. Lampe also added that fan support would be much appreciated. “We only have a few home meets this year, so fan support would be great,” Lampe said. “Our whole team is really excited about the rest of the season and we’re going to keep working hard and aim for State!”