Outdoor track athletes see improvement through season

Fedora Yeboah '26, Staff Writer|May 29, 2023

Amaris DeRosia-Estwick ’26 passes Elysa Richards ’25 the baton.

With the University High School Outdoor track finally coming to a close, the state meet is right around the corner.

May 22 was the CRAL conference meet, which was the last track meet of the season for most members of UHSSE’s team.

Head Coach Melvin Mitchell and Assistant Coach Cruz, took over the season when Coach Aaron Brown was unable to do the season because he ended up taking over his daughter’s track team, which was a great experience for him.

“Overall, the season has been great, especially under the new leadership,” said Assistant Coach Cruz. “The kids have definitely been receptive to the new coaching team that they have inquired about.”

The main goal Head Coach Melvin Mitchell and Assistant Coach Cruz have always stated to their student-athletes was to “always utilize these developmental meets and to get a PR of each event”

On May 22 there was a CRAL conference meet, the last meet opportunity for the student-athletes to make states.

Justin Chidozie ‘23, has qualified for states for the field event shot put with a throw of 41 feet 9 inches.

Chelsea Thompson ‘26 competed in the 400, 200, and 100 hurdles for conference. Goals and expectations are “to be at least placed in a first to the third rank area and keep improving over the summer so next season I’m better,” she said.

Joshua Tomczyk ’25 has had the best improvement from last year, improving by almost 5 seconds in the 200m and almost 2 seconds in the 100m.

“My favorite thing about the track is just the feeling about running, the adrenaline rush it gives it’s just fun,” said Thompson.

Thompson ‘26 best times for this year are 29.88 in the 100-meter dash, 19.17 in the 100-meter hurdles, and 1:09.79 in the 400-meters.

“My favorite thing about track is the competition; going against other track teams and improving with the team, being a single individual sport you can really take a look at yourself and see what you can improve on,” said Tomczyk.

“My goal for the year is to train hard in the off-season because I missed qualification for states in the 200 by .03 seconds so I’m using it as fuel to motivate me for next season,” said Tomczyk.

Tomczyk’s best stats for this year are a 12.14 in the 100-meter dash and a 24.57 in the 200-meter dash.

The team’s top performers by event were:

100 meters

Trevor Thomas ‘25: 12.11

Amaris DeRosia-Estwick ‘26: 14.10

200 meters

Joshua Tomczyk ‘25: 24.57

Chelsea Thompson ‘26: 29.88

400 meters

Prince Henry Adjei ‘24: 55.32

Chelsea Thompson ‘26: 1:09.79

800 meters