By Taylor Bosley Sports Editor Red Lion’s track team participated in their last home meet of the season April 27, and for seniors their last home meet ever. The girls and boys team both saw victories as the girls won 88-62 and the boys won 80-70. This win for the girls gave them a three way share of the York-Adams Division I title showing evidence of their overall successful season. Senior thrower Hailey Gunnet looks back at every meet and every season thus far as a huge success. “In my four years of high school track we won three county championships,” Gunnet said. “I think that’s really awesome and shows how hard we work as a team.” The three county championships showed the tenacity the team had over the years. “We may not have a big team but we can still measure up with teams much bigger than ours,” Gunnet said. On her senior night Gunnet got first in shot put and javelin and finishing third in discus. Senior sprinter Quincy Palmer differs in emotions when it comes to his last season. “There might be a little more emotion in each race but I don’t really think about it that much,” Palmer said. “Sometimes it hits me, sometimes it’s like any other meet.” Palmer expressed gratitude towards being a member of the Red Lion track team also. “I’ve been lucky enough to be apart of some of the most dominant and versitile track team’s that Red Lion has ever had,” Palmer said. “The teams I’ve been apart of were exceptional. We’ve been apart of something that will be remembered and that means the most to me.” A number of athletes moved on to participate in District III competition.
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By Kelsee Hunt Staff Writer It’s the beginning of spring, and that means track season is here. Despite injuries and the loss of last year’s seniors, the Red Lion track team has been working harder than before. “We are really looking forward to the postseason, getting into counties, districts, and states,” says Head Coach Todd Barshinger. Though the team lost notable seniors Amanda Myers, Cassidy Barshinger, Kylie Strong, Anna Haynie, David Kirkland, Alex Keller, Andrew Erickson, and Zack Dutton, many of last years district qualifiers will be returning. For the boys, Quincy Palmer, Eric Henshaw, Nate Orji, Kellen Wisniewski, Ethan Gatchell, and Judge Kunce will all be working toward a successful season. As for the girls, their district qualifiers last year were Angelica Gonzalez, Julia Kendrick, Tristan Schluderberg, and Jessica Lewis. The boys were 6-1 and the girls had an undefeated season with a record of 7-0. “I’m really looking forward to this season, especially since our previous seasons have been so successful,” senior captain Jessica Lewis said. So far, the only teams that seem to be a threat for Red Lion are Southwestern and Dallastown, but that isn’t a problem with Coach Barshinger, as he plans to not only defeat them but to end the season on another great note. This upcoming season will start in March and end in the beginning of May, and students are encouraged to come and support the Lions track team on their way to another successful year. By Adrianna Clinton Co-Editor-in-Chief After her highly anticipated return to the track last season, Angelica Gonzalez has determined her home for the next four years, committing to East Carolina University to run Division I Track. Angelica Gonzalez never expected to receive any scholarship offers from colleges after she was plagued with numerous injuries in her sophomore and junior years. During her freshman year, Gonzalez lit up the track. She was a county champion and district runner-up in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as a state medalist in those same events, and qualified for nationals. Along the way, she was dubbed “Freshman Phenom” and “Speedy Gonzalez” as she broke three school records, four invitational records, and a county and district record. But after experiencing two severe, unexpected hamstring injuries her sophomore year and slightly injuring the same muscle during the peak of her season at counties her junior year, Gonzalez thought she “lost everything.” Regardless, she still gained the interest of many Division I schools, including UPenn, Bucknell, Virginia Tech, Cornell, Brown University, Michigan State and East Michigan. Among those schools was also East Carolina University, where the track star recently committed. “[East Carolina] is beautiful, in the South, D-I, and has state of the art facilities...as far as the track program, they’re knowledgeable and like a really big family. The town around it has a lot of school pride, too,” Gonzalez said. After spending a weekend at the campus in North Carolina, meeting with the coach, and receiving an “overwhelming” scholarship offer, “Tears welled up in my eyes and I got emotional. I didn’t think I would get anything,” Gonzalez said. East Carolina is part of the American Athletic Conference, and is known for having not only good academics, but also a good track program. Last season, women’s track and field took home first place at the Conference USA Championship, and the Pirates also sent 10 athletes to the NCAA Outdoor National Championships, a school record. “I’m proud to represent Red Lion there and to be one of the few students here to go D-I...we [Red Lion] should be noticed. We’re not just ‘old Red Lion.’ This school got me where I am,” Gonzalez said. Some noteworthy alumni of East Carolina include actress Sandra Bullock and New York Jets running-back Chris Johnson, as well as Red Lion’s very own Mr. Matt Dennish, who competed as a distance runner at East Carolina and is now a physical education teacher at the high school. In his time with Red Lion, the 2004 graduate set the 800-meter school record (1:54.7) at the YAIAA championships and finished second at districts in the 1,600. At the collegiate level, Dennish was regularly a top finisher in both cross country and track contests. “She is a great talent and has a lot of potential...ECU is an excellent fit for her. I’m proud that Red Lion has an athlete joining the Pirate family,” Dennish said of Gonzalez’s commitment. Other notable college commitments so far this school year include Paige Taylor to York College for Division III field hockey and Jenna Hevner to Shippensburg University for Division II volleyball. Junior Angelica Gonzalez returns to the winners’ platform after suffering a major hamstring injury almost a year ago. By Adrianna Clinton Staff Writer As most athletes know, coming back from an injury is never easy; overcoming the mental boundaries, pushing through the physical pain, and not giving in to the injury are all parts of the rehab process, one that junior track star Angelica Gonzalez is all too familiar with. Following her highly successful freshman season two years ago, no one imagined that the road ahead for Gonzalez would be filled with injuries--injuries that could possibly destroy her career. Her first of two unexpected hamstring injuries came in late December during her very first indoor invitational as a small strain. The second occurred during block starts in practice, where she experienced a stage two hamstring strain. Success was all Gonzalez had ever known, and the setback she experienced put her in an uncharted place in her career. Gonzalez became a well-decorated athlete during her freshman year as she was a county champion and district runner-up in the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She was also a state medalist in those events, qualifying her for nationals. She earned the names “Freshman Phenom” and “Speedy Gonzalez” after breaking three school records, four invitational records, and a county and district record, respectively. And have colleges come calling. Gonzalez has gained the interest of numerous Division I schools, including University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, University of Miami, University of Alabama, the Naval Academy, Harvard, Yale and Duke. The expectations for her sophomore year were high after having such extraordinary success as a freshman. Her own hopes were even higher. The thought of being plagued with hamstring injuries before she could get her sophomore season off the ground and running never crossed her mind. “I thought I was on top of the world and I was Superwoman, I could do anything, I could push through any pain and it would be fine the next day,” Gonzalez said. “Then I realized there were some things I couldn’t push through.” After suffering her previous two injuries, her comeback was highly anticipated. Entering her first meet back, Gonzalez felt “amazing.” Little did she know that her return would be cut short. “In the blocks, I was confident, but then halfway through the race at the 50 meter mark, I felt a sharp pain...my leg just gave out under me.” Gonzalez went down with small tears in the same hamstring muscle, marking her third and most devastating injury, ending her sophomore season for good. “It felt like I was down for a lifetime, but it was only a few seconds.” Struggling to complete the race, she collapsed on the ground in a daze after crossing the finish line. Trainers rushed around her, giving her ice and helping her off the track elsewhere so no one could see her: “I was a mess.” The rehab therapy that followed lasted very long. Despite it being over a year since the first injury occurred, Gonzalez is still not 100 percent recovered, not just physically, but mentally. As a new season approached, the memories of what happened “absolutely terrified” her for the first race back. “It’s really scary not knowing where I’m at because I won’t know until I actually race,” she said. “When I went down at Central [York High School], the pain and the humiliation of it was one of the worst feelings ever and I do not ever want to relive that again.” Throughout the recovery process, Gonzalez had a hard time coping with the reality of her situation. The treatment turned track into a burden, instead of being something she loved to do. Nonetheless, the injury didn’t stop her from supporting her teammates on the track. While watching her team from the bleachers, all she wanted to do was race. As districts came, Gonzalez saw girls running races with slower times than hers. “I could’ve won,” she said. There were many times when Gonzalez lost hope in recovering and often thought to herself, “What happens if I don’t get better and I can’t sprint like I used to?” And times where she cried herself to sleep because of what happened. On one occasion, she put her medals away in a box because of the constant reminder they were to her of what she could not have. “Because of my freshman year, I was known for track. That’s how I was defined,” Gonzalez said. “Track was who I was. It was like I lost my identity, I didn’t know who I was anymore.” It wasn’t until she was playing tournament softball this past summer with her friends that she got her identity back and found sight of why she runs on the track: “I run for my friends, I run for my family, and I run for me.” As she moves forward from the injury, Gonzalez has set new goals for herself for the remainder of her high school career in the hopes that she fully recovers. On her list, she hopes to break and rebreak county, district, and state records in the 100 and 200, as well as become a state champion in those events. Nationals are on the list, too, as well as placing in the “top five, maybe even the top three” at the national level. After high school, Gonzalez hopes to attend a Division I school and in the back of her mind, she contemplates possibly pursuing an Olympic career path, depending upon her success for the remainder of high school and through college. In the meantime she is still rehabbing, participating in separate workouts in the weight room, working on deadlifts, squats, lunges, bridges and power cleans in an effort to fully restore the health of her hamstring. Later this season, she hopes to run the 100 again. Additionally, Gonzalez continues to “perform well.” Though she can keep up with her teammates in practice, she is trying to get back into the swing of things slowly. In her first meet back for her junior year debut, Gonzalez picked up where she left off her sophomore season, finishing with first places in the 200, 400 and long jump. “It was more than I expected. My goal was just to be able to finish my race. Winning was just icing on the cake,” Gonzalez said about her first spring track meet back from her injury. “It was more than I had hoped for.” Just recently Gonzalez earned first place points on the Red Lion homestretch versus Southwestern in the 100 (12.0), 400 (58.3) and 200 (25.3) meter races contributing to yet another Red Lion girls’ track and field YAIAA Division-One crown.
Photo by Ben Otte
By Ben Logan Staff Writer The 2013 spring sports regular seasons have come to an end, and along with that, the post-season. Many Red Lion sports teams this year were qualified to enter districts, counties, and states. The track teams were amongst the many with members who qualified. This year’s boys and girls track teams put up an amazing undefeated record for the 2013 season, a record that has qualified many for districts, as well as the Penn Relays. The district qualifiers from the girls team include Amanda Young (pole vault), Amanda Wivell (distance), Amanda Myers (javelin), and sophomore Angelica Gonzales (sprints). Even more so, Amanda Young and Amanda Wivel will go even further, as they will participate in the 2013 Penn Relay, in which only 20 girls from the state qualify.
Last year's high peaks may very well fuel the Lions this time around.
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