The indoor track team competed at regionals Feb. 9 in Landover, Maryland with the boy’s team placing ninth out of 16 teams and the girl’s team placing 10th out of 14.

Many runners qualified individually for states: Michael Gorman in the 300m, Aaron Bratt and Josh Engels in the 3200m, the girls 4x800m relay (Lena Feldman, Rachel Friedman, Shanthi Ashley, Jenan El-Hifnawi), and Breanna McDonald in the 800m. One of the most notable performances came from sophomore Aniella Delafosse, who finished fourth in the 55m dash, making states and setting a Whitman record.

“Nearly every athlete came away from regionals with a season best or even a personal record,” coach Stephen Hayes said. “It was a pretty awesome night.”

While some Vikes were able to advance to states, some fell just short of qualifying. Dylan Madden missed the cut to make states in the 500m by less than a second, while the boys 4×400 relay (Dylan Madden, Kevin Kaufman, David Isaacs, Michael Gorman) and the girls 4×200 relay (Hannah Freund, Emma Liles, Natachi Onwuamaegbu, Aniella Delafosse) finished a few seconds short of qualifying.

“We really wanted more of our relays to go and we were close in both,” Madden said.

Three weeks before regionals, the team participated in counties. The boy’s team finished in 16th place while the girl’s team finished in 15th place. Individually, some notable performances included Gorman who came in second in the 300m, and the girls 4×800 relay (Lena Feldman, Breanna McDonald, Shanthi Ashley, Jenan El-Hifnawi) that finished in fourth.

The indoor track team will finish up their season at states Feb. 22, and the expectations for the runners who made states is high.

“It would be a major accomplishment if multiple runners including myself finished top five in their event at states,” Gorman said.

Michael Gorman is a columnist for the Black & White.