Track athletes looks forward to their last season running for Rolla. Senior Sophia Holmes wasn’t expecting the beginning of her track season to take such an unexpected turn. Holmes has been one of the best track athletes on the team since her first year as a freshman and it came as a shock to everyone when she pulled her hip flexor during the first week of track practice.
“I have gone to sectionals every year, in at least one event, since freshman year. Last year my 4×4 and 4×8 teams made it to state, and I’ve gotten MVP on the team for the past two years,” senior Sophia Holmes said.
Clearly, Holmes was expecting even better results this year and her coaches expected nothing less than the best from her. At this time though, she was also playing a huge role in the school play and couldn’t miss rehearsal for track.
“I pulled my hip flexor because I was trying to do too much at once. Between track practice twice a day and a two hour rehearsal for the play right after practice, I was more prone to injury because I was rushing through my workouts,” Holmes said.
Holmes wasn’t the only one upset about her injury though, her teammates for the 4×4 and 4×8 were relying on her health. They had no alternates who could get anywhere close to the times Holmes ran. Without her on the team they stood no chance at the bigger meets against better teams, and with the conference meet just around the corner, they need her more than ever.
“I was upset about it, and I felt like I was letting my team down by being hurt. I wanted to run with them more than anything, but I knew that my injury would just get worse if I did. Then we would have no chance of making it to state again, and that’s our ultimate goal this season,” Holmes said.
Holmes still went to practice, despite the injury, and would try to do as much as her hip flexor could handle.
“For the first three weeks of practice I would just jog around the track, increasing number of laps each week. It was a very slow progression to health, but i knew that I couldn’t handle much more at that point, even with the kinesio tape that I would put on it everyday. It was also aggravating for me because I’m a very competitive person, and it hurt watching everyone else running and knowing they were getting better while I was being held back. Then leading up to my first meet, I was able to do full track workouts at half speed,” Holmes said.
After a month of anticipation, Holmes was finally able to run in her first meet of the season. Though she wasn’t able run as much as she normally does, it was a start for her. She the 1600m and the 4×4 relay at the Marshfield Invite. Her coaches didn’t run her in the 4×8 relay because they didn’t think she was ready to take on three races in one day.
“I did a lot better than I expected. Coming back I got second in the 1600 with a time of 5:25, which is only ten seconds off from my personal record. My team and I then went on to get first in the 4×4 relay, which was exciting for all of us,” Holmes said.
Holmes has been running and practicing with her team, like normal, since her first meet back. She hopes to have the same success as last track season, if not more and move on as far as possible for her last year as a Rolla athlete.
“It feels awesome to be back and running again. I was grinning from ear to ear on my first meet back because I was finally able to run again. You don’t know how much you miss something until you can’t do it anymore. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this season will bring for me and my team,” Holmes said.