Ludlow High’s track team proved their talent and hard work in the first track meet with many qualifiers and high rankings.

The girls track team lost 57-37 to Pope Francis High School, but celebrated a win against Greenfield High School with a score of 66-14.

The boys team lost to both schools: Greenfield with a close score of 46-39 and Pope Francis 62-32.

Three girls achieved times that qualified for Western Mass. Freshman Baylee Edwards qualified in the 300 meter race with a third place win overall.

Edwards’s early achievement shocked everyone, especially her. “I didn’t think I would qualify at all my Freshman year. I’m proud of myself,” she said.

Overall, Edwards enjoyed her first experience racing. While feeling nervous and unsure of whether she would succeed, she said when the gun shot went off all of her nerves vanished. “I could hear everyone cheering for me, which made me run even faster. When I crossed the finish line I felt relieved,” explained Edwards.

Senior Emily Alves also made an impressive performance, winning fourth place overall and qualifying for Western Mass in the one mile.

In addition, Sophomore Savanna Charrow, an experienced runner, qualified in the 1000 meter along with Senior Sullivan Kennedy, the only qualifying boy runner.

We can expect to see more Western Mass qualifiers in the near future because three girls came close to qualifying. Sophomore Emily Lima, winning fifth place overall, came only 0.3 seconds away from qualifying in the 55 meter dash.

Two Sophomores came close to qualifying in the 300 meter race. Sofia Manuel, running with a recovering fracture in her ankle, ran 0.3 seconds short of qualifying time.

Catarina Ferreira finished close behind her with only 0.4 seconds to reaching the qualifying time. She set a goal to qualify in this week’s meet. “In the race I started off running way too slow and that costed me in the end. I’m definitely going to workout harder during practice,” said Ferreira.

Ferreira feels more than satisfied with her performance in the 4×200 meter relay. She ran the relay with Juniors Angel Estrada and Sydney Carrington, along with Sophomore Emily Lima. The group won first place in their heat and fourth place overall. Ferreira proudly exclaimed the team “won by a mile.”

Estrada reached an impressive height of 4’5” in High Jump, coming in fifth place. Senior Alex Benjamin, an experienced jumper, won third place.

For Junior Kyle Zuccoalong with Sophomores Justin Branco and Darren Peabody, the first track meet wasn’t as pleasant because they missed their race.

After checking in, the boys warmed up for their race and did not hear the announcer call the 600 meter. The boys didn’t notice they missed the race until the other runners came rushing past them.

“I felt disappointed because I missed my first race but I’m also somewhat relieved because now I get more time to prepare for the next meet,” says Branco.

The sprinting coach Eric Nacsin reports “I am very impressed and happy with what I saw last Friday.”