The Warren Central boys track and field team kicked off the outdoor portion of their season on April 10, with a home meet against Ben Davis. Sadly, the team did not come away with the win, but still had a few individual winners.

        “There are a lot of positives and lots of potential to look forward to as we continue our season,” head coach William Eric Smith said.

        Since then, the boys have lived up to the potential Smith sees in them. The team has had multiple victories across the track, including strong performances from a dual meet at Pike High School. Junior Randy Wells with a 53’ 00.50” in shot put, the 23rd best performance in school history, junior Elijah Price jumped a 22’ 08.50” in Long Jump and freshmen Xavier Wills ran a 2:05.26 in the 800 meter run, the 3rd best time for a freshman in school history.  

        One factor that has contributed to the team’s success were their accomplishments during the indoor part of their season. With meets at Indiana University, Pike and Wabash, the boys have been able to be strong competitors in various events.

        “During the indoor season, we had a lot of success and that has given us the motivation and determination to only strive for better results,” junior William Arnold said.

        One of the events that allowed the boys to claim a fifth place title at Boy’s State was the 4x200 meter relay, where seniors Jordan Hodge and Ty Shannon, junior Roman Purcell and sophomore Otto De St Jeor ran a 1:30.18 and currently sits as the fourth best time in school history. Even though this event is not a part of the outdoor events, the achievement will transfer over to the other sprinting events such as the 4x100 meter relay.

        In the 4x100, Price, Shannon, Hodge, and Purcell ran 42.32 in the event, translating upon the series of victories and strong finishes with a solid time to begin the outdoor season. The boys know that this is the beginning of the road to becoming one of the best 4x100 relays in the state.

        “Right now we are the number four team in the state,” Purcell said. “By the end of outdoor we [hope] to be number one.”

        Although these accomplishments reflect the hard work put in every day at practice, there are still some things that the team feels they need to work on to become better rounded and constant. Some areas that head coach Smith thinks that the team could grow in are consistency in field events, confidence and depth in the distance and sprinting events.

        “The key to winning big meets is going to be more consistency in the field events,” Smith said. “We are better every year but consistency in the field is the biggest factor to take it to the next level.”

        Some of the boys fielders that have shown growth in recent times are Wells and Price. With the success that the fiedlers are being able to achieve so far this season, they hope to continue upon that to ensure consistency for their team.

        “This season we know that we have a lot of talent on the team, so we know that we have to work hard so that we are able to succeed,” Arnold said.