Last year, expectations were set high for track and field’s 2015-16 season; the women’s 4×100 team continued to improve, and both the men and women’s team would welcome returning talent as well as fresh faces in the following year. As the rest of the Pumas have been sitting back and watching this track season spontaneously evolve, nothing but impressive record times, stamina, and will to improve has presented itself.

As the season was just beginning, Coach Lowery’s hopes for the girl’s team were very high, adding that he wanted his athletes to try and, “break a few records this season.” He also noted that one certain runner was one to keep a close eye on, and as this year’s season has progressed, she is sure making her mark; her name is Alyssia Gonzalez.

Beginning with arguably the most impressive of the many records broken this year, the girls 4×100 relay team (Gonzalez, Michelle Bolden, Kelly Cannistra, and Etoy Halvig-Hanserd) has surpassed 2010’s school record of a 50.95 second run with a 49.8 second finish, a whole second faster than the previous record.

“It feels great,” commented 4×100 relay member and record holder Alyssia Gonzalez. “We had a lot of good people last year, but this year we have a lot better people.” She continued saying that Coach Lowery, “has always been motivational to us, and since I’m the captain, I want to motivate as many people I can too.”

Michelle Bolden, another member of the relay team (who also doubles as a staff reporter for The Precedent), said that, “getting into the 49 second time slots is a big deal because once you do that we automatically qualify for state. That’s a huge achievement for us.”

As if that all wasn’t enough of impressive feats for the girls track team as a whole, on the field side of things there’s senior Sykora Walker, who recently landed a record-breaking discuss distance of 120’ 4.00”, blowing away 2011’s school record of 103’ 1.00”. Also, for the men’s distance team, established senior runner Cade Burks continues to hold Perry’s name in track and field high.

Whether it’s a comeback story in basketball, an amazing badminton season, or a record-breaking congregation of runners we call track and field, Perry athletics continues to impress and blow away the expectations of coaches, viewers, and the athletes themselves. As this year’s track season only has about a month left of it, all each runner has to do is improve, and by the looks of it, doing that is not a hard feat to accomplish.