Metro Bellwater's high school track programs had their best regional qualifying meet in recent memory this weekend, with athletes from four different schools punching tickets to the state championship.
Cedar Hollow High senior Jasmine Ortiz qualified in both the 100- and 200-meter sprints, posting the fastest regional times in both events and headlining a group that includes qualifiers from West Bellwater, Riverside Heights, Bellwater Central and Lowertown high schools. Ortiz, who also plays on Cedar Hollow’s basketball team, said track had always been a secondary sport for her until this season. “I did track mostly to stay in shape for basketball,” Ortiz said. “This year I actually started training for it like it was its own sport, and the times just kept dropping every meet.”
Distance runners lead a strong West Bellwater contingent
West Bellwater High senior Owen Castillo qualified in both the 1,600- and 3,200-meter runs, part of a four-athlete qualifying group from the suburban school that coach Tobias Lund called the program’s deepest in his decade leading the team. “We’ve always had one good runner every few years,” Lund said. “This is the first time I’ve had four kids qualify for state in the same season, and three of them are underclassmen, so this isn’t a one-year thing.”
Riverside Heights High hurdler Nadia Okwuosa also qualified, clearing a regional meet record in the 300-meter hurdles that had stood for eleven years. Okwuosa said she found out about the record only after crossing the finish line. “My coach told me right after and I honestly didn’t believe her at first,” Okwuosa said. “I was just trying to hit my splits. Finding out I broke a record that old was a bonus.”
Track doesn’t get the crowds football and basketball get around here, but a weekend like this one shows people what these kids can do when they get the same attention those other sports get.
Elias Ford, Metro-Area Track and Field Coordinator
Lowertown’s qualifier trains without a home track
Lowertown High senior Darius Fenwick, who qualified in the long jump, trains without a dedicated track at his own school, a gap coach Marisol Feng said the program has worked around for years by borrowing practice time on Bellwater Central High’s track several afternoons a week. “We don’t have our own track, our own long-jump pit, any of it,” Feng said. “Darius has been doing run-throughs measured off with cones in our parking lot for two years because that’s what we have access to on the days we can’t get over to Central.” Fenwick said the arrangement has made qualifying for state feel like a bigger accomplishment than it might for an athlete with better facilities. “I’ve been begging rides to practice at a school that isn’t even mine since I was a freshman,” Fenwick said. “Qualifying with what we’ve had to work with means a lot.”
Bellwater Central High senior Grant Pratt, who qualified in the shot put and javelin, said sharing his school’s track with Lowertown’s team has become a normal part of the season for Central’s own athletes. “They come over a few afternoons a week and honestly it just makes practice more competitive for everybody,” Pratt said. “I don’t think it’s right that they have to ask permission to use our track, but I’m glad our school says yes.” Feng said she has raised the facility gap with the school district but has not received a commitment on funding for a dedicated track at Lowertown.
College recruiters taking notice
Ford said the qualifying group has already drawn interest from college programs, including Kincaid University and Bellwater State, both of which sent assistant coaches to the regional meet. “It’s rare for us to have this many events with this level of depth in the same season,” Ford said. “That’s exactly the kind of meet that gets college coaches from our own local schools showing up in person instead of just watching times online.” Ortiz said she has already heard from Bellwater State’s track program, though she has not decided where she plans to run in college. “Having options close to home wasn’t something I expected a year ago,” she said. “Now I actually have to think about it.” The state meet is scheduled for next month, with all four qualifying schools sending representatives to the same statewide field for the first time in several years.
Ford said the coordinating body that oversees the metro area’s high school track programs is using this season’s qualifying results to make the case for additional shared regional funding, including money that could go toward improving facilities at schools like Lowertown that currently lack their own track. “It’s a lot easier to ask a school board or a private donor for facility money when you can point to a kid who qualified for state despite training in a parking lot,” Ford said. “Darius Fenwick’s story this year is exactly the kind of case study that gets people’s attention who might otherwise not think about track funding at all.”
Castillo, the West Bellwater distance runner, said he has tried to use his own qualifying run to draw attention to the disparity between his program’s resources and Lowertown’s. “We have an actual track, a real weight room, all of it,” he said. “Darius is out there beating some of that with cones in a parking lot. If people want to see what talent plus almost nothing can still do, his story is a better one to tell than mine.” Feng said she was grateful for the support from athletes at other schools but hoped it would translate into concrete funding commitments rather than only public attention. “Attention is nice,” she said. “A track would be better.”