(Griswold) Track practice is off and rolling for the Griswold girls.
Coach Rachel Larsen says the team has been putting in a lot of time even before official practice started last Monday. “I have a really, really good group of girls this year. We have more numbers than we did last year so I’m super excited about that. We have 17 girls on our team and a lot of them have been practicing and running for over a month now and the of course we started official practice on the 20th. They are excited and I’m excited so we are definitely ready for the season to get up and going.”
Larsen explains there has been an emphasis on team culture. “We’ve been meeting as a group a lot and just talking about our culture and making sure we are all on the same page. I told the girls that that’s our number one priority always is how they are feeling and what is going on on the team is most important. Just working on our mindset and making goals for what they want to accomplish this year.”
Larsen is encouraged by the direction the program is heading. “I just think that having more numbers this year shows me that the girls had fun and enjoyed being on the team. They talked to their peers and said track is fun, let’s do it. I just think creating a positive environment and culture has helped gain number which hopefully will give us a little more depth this year.”
A couple of seniors will be key leaders and some talented freshman enter the fray. “Eryn Peterson was kind of fighting an injury last year so we didn’t get to see quite as much as we would have out of her, but she’s back this year and she’s ready to go. She’ll be a great athlete for us on the team and then Emma Mundorf is also a senior on the team and she is coming back this year. She’ll be also doing amazing things for us. Then we have some great new freshmen that are coming out to maybe run some distance for us. I’ve been having the girls focus on what they can do. I want their goals to be to go to state this year and I think that they can accomplish that.”
The Tigers will compete at the Iowa State Indoor Meet on March 9th.
Griswold coach Rachel Larsen:
