Track and Volleyball 2024

 Owen played on the volleyball team at school this spring.  He only played one short season the previous year, with only one tournament at the end of the season.  So he had to essentially learn the sport this season.  I'm also still learning the rules and positions as a spectator since this is a new sport for our family.  Owen had a good season.  He played at least 33 games and was a starter and played most of the time in the games.  They won 7 out of 9 league matches.  They had a pretty exciting finish to the season, beating a local rival in the 3rd match.  They won the 1st match 25-13, lost the 2nd match 17-25, and then won the 3rd 15-13.  Owen really enjoyed playing and looking forward to playing again next year.  

Jared finished off his senior season of track.  He tried some different races at the beginning of the season.  He ran the 3200 relay - 800m for each runner, the 800m in the distance medley relay, 400m, 800m, 1600m, 3200m, and 110 and 300 hurdles.  He settled into the mile and 300 hurdles as his main races.   He spent the season trying to beat his 4:56 mile PR from last year, but he wasn't quite able to do it.  His season best was 4:57, so he came so close.  I prayed really hard with his last race that he'd be able to beat his PR, but it wasn't meant to be.  However, he did get a 47.76 PR on the 300 hurdles at the last meet.  We weren't sure if he would even run at that meet since he was an alternate for the hurdles.  They only took 18 runners for that meet's hurdle race.  We still went to the meet and hoped that someone would drop out.  He was also sick that day, but he wasn't going to miss his chance to run his last race.  At check-in, he went to see if he got a spot.  He was surprised when the lady said there were no alternates for the race, but he quickly realized he was already on the list of runners.  One guy had chosen not to run the race, even though he had a great race time.  Apparently he chose to do the 110 hurdles and pole vault.  I was really grateful Jared got to race.  He got a personal best that last hurdle race, despite being sick and nearly stumbling over one of the hurdles.  Prayers were granted for that race.  I don't think Jared met his goals for the season, but he worked hard and had a good season.  He looked a lot stronger this season and had some great mile times.     

Here is a link to a video with highlights of Jared's season.