After a fourteen-year-long drought, the Girls Varsity Indoor Track team has brought home their second VHSL Indoor Track and Field Championship. Under the leadership of Coach Stan Morgan, Coach Dan Ward and Coach Nick Davis, the team has flourished during the 2021 season, which looked a bit different than most. Despite every challenge that the team faced, they came together in strength and power to capture the state title, and many athletes won individual titles. In this meet, every point mattered, as the team won by a mere two points in a dramatic finish. 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 VHSL Class 5 State Indoor Track and Field Championship meet was the first physically-indoor race that the team competed in; every race leading up to the state meet was run on an outdoor track, unlike other seasons, which primarily took place at indoor facilities. For this meet, the team raced at the state-of-the-art Virginia Beach Sports Complex, which many top officials have designated as the best indoor track in the nation. Additionally, because of social distancing capacity limits, the meet separated teams by gender, with the female athletes competing from 8:00 to 1:00 and the male athletes competing from 2:00 to 7:00; while this may appear to be a practical option for social distancing, this cut the opportunity for multi-event athletes to rest between events in half. However, the Trojans took the new event structure in stride and pushed through all pain, emerging victorious.

The doors opened at 7:30 a.m. on March 2, 2021, with every athlete and coach completing a wellness and temperature check; for social distancing purposes, no spectators could enter the venue, and all races were streamed on an online platform. Quickly warming up, the 4×800-meter relay team of Millie Weinhold, Chloe Martin, Megan Lamberson, and Katherine Krievs toed the line at 8:30, ready to kick off the meet with a bang. The team finished in fifth place, setting the rest of the Midlo Trojans up for success. In the field events, senior Madelyn Venable carried the Trojans, with a second-place finish in the triple jump and a sixth-place finish in the long jump, while freshman Emily DeWitt diversified the team with the pole vault, where she finished in sixth place. At 10:00, the rest of the running events resumed, with Venable taking seventh in the 55-meter hurdles and Dasia Hardy finishing fourth in the 55-meter dash. Then, senior Caroline Bowe began her events, where she would end up scoring a total of 30 points. Bowe ran the 1600-meter run, which she won, and then she rested for twenty minutes before running and winning the 1000-meter run. Along with Bowe, Kylie Bonser finished second in the 1600-meter run and then doubled-back to run the 3200-meter run, which she finished in sixth. This double was not completed by any other individual in the meet, marking Bonser’s undying commitment to the Trojans. Also in the 3200-meter run, Katherine Krievs finished third and Nicole Quiram crossed the line in fourth, adding vital points to the score.

After all of these events, the Trojans were down by a few points and knew that only one thing could win the championship: a victory in the final event, the 4×400-meter relay. With individual and team titles on the line, the 4×400-meter relay team of Madelyn Venable, Dasia Hardy, Caroline Bowe, and Christina Mulroy toed the line and never looked back. This relay team, cheered on by every teammate and parent (virtually, of course), pushed the team to victory, winning their event by two seconds. In regards to the team victory, Bowe said, “There was no greater victory than winning states as a team! We have worked so hard and it was fun to see hard work pay off!”

This team victory, which they won by only two points, marked the end of a fourteen-year-long drought and brought home the second VHSL Indoor Track and Field Championship title. Coach Stan Morgan said, “They were so emotionally high, I was so happy for the girls because they’ve all worked so hard this year. Everything that we’ve been through, it just put the icing on the cake.”

Congratulations to the individual champions, Caroline Bowe, Madelyn Venable, Dasia Hardy and Christina Mulroy, as well as the entire Girls Indoor Track and Field team! Go Midlo!