When it comes down to the last 100 meters in the 4x400m relay race, muscle cramping and blurring vision have to be shoved away as an afterthought.
“If you’re hurting you have to push through,” captain Macy Ratermann (11) said. “That part is the hardest, but you just have to be persistent.”
As the anchor, Ratermann had watched her three teammates take their rounds in the relay. The Mt. Carmel Invitational, March 23, would be the 4x400m team’s first time racing altogether. Delaney Hennigan (10) and Jordyn Vales (9) had undeniable speed, and Arciaga had bested her own school record — in short, Ratermann wasn’t worried about doing well. Her team’s screams of excitement carried her through the finish line, securing them a spot in the Arcadia Invitational, this weekend. But when the team placed third, they hadn’t noticed they’d won a different race — one against time. By eight seconds, to be exact.
“We expected to do well but not to demolish the school record,” Ratermann said. “We were all tired, but it was exhilarating because we were in shock. When we went over to our coaches at the end, they [said], ‘We were expecting 4.03 but you guys got 3.58.’ It was all really exciting and we were really happy. We knew it was just the beginning.”
Solidifying a 4x400m team hadn’t become a priority until this year due to complications of runners focusing on their own events, according to Ratermann. She said adding Vales to the team was key to breaking the school record by such a significant margin.
“At the beginning of the year, we didn’t really know what the 4×400 [would] be,” she said. “[We] basically just put forward our best 400m runners together because we just got a new girl, [Vales]. We got her on the team for this one event and that’s what pushed us over. She was such a strong starter. [In] the first lap she really got our time down.”
Arciaga said that the strategies involved in running relays are especially dependent on running order.
“In relays, the order that people go in is super important,” Arciaga said. “What people try to do is make sure that everyone has a great chance of being the best they can be because that’s what’s going to put everyone at their best speeds. Deciding as a group [and with] our coaches where we think our strong suits are is one of the biggest factors in getting such great times.”
Arciaga has run track since her freshman year. In her experience, she said that relay races have built-in moral support that’s different from just running individually.
“Running, in general, is really a mental sport,” Arciaga said. “If you’re not mentally in it, you’re not going to do as well as you should, but that’s where your teammates come in, especially because it’s a relay. You know you’re going to have people to run with, you know you’re going to have people cheering you on, [whereas] individual events are much harder because sometimes you’ll be going to a meet and you’ll be the only one there.”
Despite running together for the first time, the four are no strangers after being teammates on the field during soccer season.
“All of us were late to starting track season because of [soccer state championships],” Arciaga said. “I love running with my soccer team; it just makes such good connections. I feel like I’m so much closer to Macy, Delaney, and Jordyn. It makes it more fun.”
Ratermann looks forward to exploring her team’s potential in Arcadia, league, and CIF finals. “If we all work together and if we really put our effort into the 4x400m, then we can do really well and go really far,” she said. “We’re hoping to get to states for this. Just having the group of girls that I’m so connected to already is amazing, and to be able to go really far with them is great.”
