Entering the second month of their season, Pioneer’s women’s track and field team has looked bright. After graduating most of their best runners, the team wasn’t sure of how they were going to reload this year. Despite the doubt, they have come back strong and are looking at a very promising rest of the year.
The girls competed at a dual meet against the Monroe Trojans at Monroe High School on April 22, 2025. The weather was perfect and the team ran well. In the weeks before, the wind, rain and cold made it a hard condition to run fast in, but as the weather gets warmer, the girls are running even faster.
The meet started at 4:30 p.m. with the field events and 5 p.m. for the running events. The running events started with the Pioneers winning the 4×800 relay by a full minute and five seconds with a time of 9:25.32. The girls then went on to run many personal bests in the mile and 800, with Bridget Kerber beating her time by 10 seconds, along with Jasmine Boggy, Avery Mayer and Lena Hammerman.
Mayer, a CHS sophomore and first-year distance runner, has felt immense support on the girls’ track team and enjoyed bonding with her friends during long meet days. She recalls her first impressions of the team and her feelings about this special group of girls now.
“Everybody is very fast, but they don’t make you feel bad about it,” Mayer said. The workouts are bad while they’re happening, but I feel better about them after and I definitely think that I’ve seen improvements, so I think that’s been nice in the track season so far.”
Mayer is a fan of relays and enjoys the group aspect of running more than just the individual events.
Mayer commented on her favorite 4×400 relay leg. “I really kind of enjoyed being fourth because then I didn’t have to worry about a handoff and I got to see everyone else run too,” Mayer said.
Along with some amazing races in distance, the sprinters held their own, too. CHS students Meredith Bell and Azalia Harmon both got 6th in their races, along with Bell getting 3rd in high jump and 4th in pole vault. The night ended with Pioneer winning with a total of 110.5 points against Monroe and 101 points against Temperance Bedford. The girls will continue their season, with two meets per week and Conference Championships just around the corner at the beginning of May.
