The regular indoor track season ended and the Western Mass Championships will be held at Smith College Friday, February 10.

“I am very impressed by the amount of athletes who officially qualified for Western Mass, specifically from the girls team,” says track coach Eric Nascin. A total of nine athletes, seven girls and two boys, qualified to compete, hoping to earn points for Ludlow High.

Sophomore Sofia Manuel, a determined sprinter, will be competing in the 300 meter race. She qualified for Western Mass in only her second meet. “My goal is to run the race in 44 seconds,” says Manuel.

Manuel’s severely injured ankle poses a threat to achieving her goal. She worries about falling the way she did in her last attempt to run this race.

“I can’t run as naturally with an injured ankle because the injury prevents me from flexing past a certain extent, creating a less fluid motion while I run,” she says. She still plans to push herself in practice, but wears a boot during the day for extra support.

Sophomore Emily Lima and Freshman Baylee Edwards will accompany Manuel in the 300 meter dash. Emily Lima runs this race often and finished with a time nearly two seconds faster than the qualifying time of 47.2 seconds.

Edwards will also bring competition to the other teams in the 55 meter dash, which she can run in 7.79 seconds. Lima qualified with a close time to that of Edwards.

Sophomore middle distance runner Catarina Ferreira holds a personal record of 1:51.51, qualifying by almost four seconds. Each time she runs this race, her time drops by two seconds, so she hopes to finish this next attempt in 1:49.

Sophomore Savanna Charow qualified to compete in the championships for the second year in a row in the 1000 meter race. This year, she set a goal to qualify for states, so she needs to decrease her time of  3:32.05 by four seconds.

Senior Emily Alves will have the chance to compete in the championships for both the 1000 meter and the one mile. Her experience in Cross Country helped her achieve an impressive mile time of 5 minutes, 54.91 seconds.

Freshman Maegan Santos, a beginner high jumper, reached the highest height of the season, 4’8”, receiving a place in Western Mass for the event.

“I’m nervous because I still don’t feel entirely comfortable with the motions for high jump because it’s still new to me.”

Only two boys have the chance to earn points for Ludlow High in the Western Mass Championships. Senior Sullivan Kennedy will run the 1000 meter race. He ran the one mile in just under five minutes, qualifying for this event as well.

Senior Alex Benjamin qualified to compete in the 300 meter dash by a close cut. He ran the race 0.6 seconds faster than the qualifying time. He wanted to compete in the championships for high jump as well, but came two inches short.

Last year, the team came in 18 place out of 21 teams. This year, Nascin expects the team to place in the top 15, but would like to see top 10. He hopes for the team to score in the double digits by having athletes place in the top eight for their event.