At El Camino College on May 11, varsity track and field entered into the second and ultimately their final round of CIF-SS Division 4. The 4×100 relay team, which included juniors Hailey Adams and Nia Mosby and sophomores Giana Parks and Starrlyn Brown, placed third overall in Division 4, making history for Archer track and field. Before the season ended, The Oracle sat down with two track and field captains, Adams and senior Miayunique South, to discuss the season and CIF.

What are your main personal and team goals for the rest of this season? 

Hailey Adams [HA]: Making sure we all go as far as we can, winning league championships again and having as many athletes as we can go to CIF — that would be a great opportunity for Archer and the team as a whole. Personally, since this is my junior year, I think meeting all my times that I need to and hopefully having a lot of personal bests, personal records and then going all the way to state [are my goals].

Miayunique South [MS]: My main goal for the team would be to get as many people to state as possible but also get the younger girls and older girls closer. I feel like a lot of us are upperclassmen and there’s a lot of freshmen coming in, so I want to create that bond.

When did you find your initial love for track? 

[HA]: My brother ran cross country in high school, and I would always go to his cross country meets. And I would be like, “Mommy, I want to do that, I want to run.” I think going out there and seeing all those girls run and push themselves and seeing the benefits of them winning and what that looks like really pushed me to want to [run]. I wanted to be in their position.

[MS]: I started loving track sophomore year when the track team became more serious with what we were doing and meets and practices became more fun.

How do you plan to make the new girls on the team feel included? 

[HA]: Making sure we’re taking opportunities like on the bus or at practice, just having fun bonding. We want to put in the work, but we also want [the new athletes] to have a fun experience, and so making sure we’re doing our best at team bonding at meets [is important]. We’re trying to plan activities and team dinners.

[MS]: Right now, [the captains and I are] in the midst of planning different team bonding activities, so we want to make sure the freshmen feel like they can talk to us and that they’re supported. We just want to be friends on the track as well as off the track.

What are your main strategies to help you get to a CIF victory in practice? 

[HA]: Practice-wise, we’re just pushing ourselves. Taking advantage of [hard practices] and pushing ourselves to the limit — that’s what is going to get you there. Just staying focused on our goals [because] once we do that, everything will fall into place.

[MS]: Having a powerful voice is very helpful, so when you’re reading schedules and when you’re leading the warm-up run, that’s really important to demand [the team’s attention]. Also, knowing when you’re in the captain position and when you’re in the friend position is something that all of the captains have been working on.