The boys and girls track teams both competed in their first meet of the season on Saturday Dec. 5 against T.C Williams and Robert E. Lee. The boys’ team was able to defeat both of their competitors to make their record 2-0. The girls were able to beat Lee but fell to the Titans.

Both teams had strong collective performances but outstanding individual performances included for the girls, Kelly O’Brien placing second in the 55m dash, second in the 300m and first place in the long jump. Other strong girls’ team performances included Natalie Johnson placed second in the 500m dash and Kaitlyn Mann placing first in the shot put competition.

For the boys’ side, strong performances included Daniel Blasser placed first in the 500m, Wesley Scales placed first in the 55m dash, Ahmed Bile placed first in the mile and 1000m, also Josh Jean-Jacques placed first in the high jump conpetition.

Looking on towards the rest of the season, the team hopes to continue winning and improve on their weaknesses. “We need to improve in the distance area because there are a lot of new runners but overall there’s a lot of potential for the team as a whole.” said senior Meriem Oweis.

Coaches and athletes are all looking forward to the final outcome of their district tournament with high hopes and predicting another strong finish in first place for the boys team and the girls look to progress and improve on their sixth place finish.

“I think the team is poised again to take the district title because we have a lot of depth in our roster, we just worry that the younger classes will be able to uphold the tradition,” said senior long jumper Desmond Lee.

In their next meet the girls hope to improve on their first meet by working harder at practice to make their loss to the Titans the only one in their season. The Atoms hope to get faster starts and have a better overall level of conditioning. “I think that we have the talent to win the rest of our meets as long as we keep working hard and continue to improve as an entire team for the rest of the season,” said senior Maggie Bermingham.

As a program the outlook is optimistic and coaches have high expectations for both teams. “I predict that on both teams AHS will have continues success at dual and tri meets, and will individually advance a large number of athletes to regionals and states,” said head coach Sean Miller.