Soles pressed carefully against the starting block, Luke Yakubisin (12) mentally prepared for his 110-meter hurdle race at the home dual meet against San Marcos, March 20. As his heart raced, he reminded himself to make his last season count and leave Westview with more than just memories: a new school record.
He told himself that he would cross the finish in less than 15 seconds, the race would be over in 30 seconds, and the winners would be announced. Yakubisin reasoned with his nerves, but still, the jitters remained. The stadium went silent as the starting gun was raised.
“It came time for my race and watching everybody else just built up the nerves,” Yakubisin said. “I had doubts before the race like, ‘Am I good enough? Can I do this?’ but the race only lasted for around 15 seconds for me. I know that the second the starter calls out, ‘On your marks,’ and I get into the blocks, it’s go time. At that point, I just need to run and maintain my form. It doesn’t matter what the people next to me run because there’s no time to think about them or my nerves. ”
Only 14.81 seconds after the starting gun went off, Yakubisin crossed the finish line in second place, beating the 2017 school record by 0.03 seconds and setting his new personal record.
“I was pumped about the school record, pumped about a new personal best, and just had a generally good feeling finally being able to reach something that I’ve been working for a long time to get,” he said. “Heading into this season, one of my main goals was to break the school record earlier in the season so I could keep growing from there and keep decreasing my time.”
Although Yakubisin said he left the track feeling successful, the race didn’t run smoothly. Due to a false start, one Westview teammate was disqualified, and Yakubisin had to return to the blocks. This time, he said, his anxiety had diminished and he felt confident.
“The nerves that I had before the first start [made it so that] I just didn’t have a good start; I was slow out of the blocks,” Yakubisin said. “A lot of the anxiety from the race just kind of goes away when you hear the gun go off, kind of like a light that goes off. like a switch in your mind like, ‘Okay, you need to go, don’t worry, don’t think about anything, just go.’ I know that this second chance doesn’t come a whole lot, but after [the false start], there wasn’t enough time for all the nerves to come back. So at that point, I’m just like, ‘We’re doing this again’ but I’m already locked in and I’ve just got to execute.”
Despite a slower start than a San Marcos runner in the lane to his right, Yakubisin found rhythm in his footing and kept a close distance.
“After the second hurdle, I get into a rhythm where I move my legs quickly between the hurdles, and when I get to the hurdles, I go up over the hurdles and I snap back down really quickly.”
However, Yakubisin wasn’t the only one who triumphed. Earlier that day, Jane Kennedy (12) ran the 100-meter hurdles in 15.11 seconds, winning her event and setting both a new school record and PR. Leading up to her race, Kennedy said she felt optimistic about winning because of the sunny weather and the chance to compete on her home track for the first time this season; she was recovering from an ankle injury during the first home meet, March 6.
“It was my first home meet, so I was pretty excited, plus I like home meets better because our track is really good,” Kennedy said. “There was a nice breeze, like a tailwind, which is going behind you when you’re running, so it helps you run faster. During warmups, I felt pretty fast in drills and I felt confident going in.”
Although she beat the previous Westview record by 0.07 seconds, Kennedy said she was unsure of her performance immediately after the race.
“I wasn’t really expecting a PR because at first, I thought I heard them say my time was 16.11, and normally [my] time is 15.59, so I was like ‘There’s no way I just ran that slow,’” Kennedy said. “Then I looked at the clock, and I saw the time, and I was in shock because the previous record was 15.18, so it was really close.”
When running, Kennedy said she paid close attention to her technique, specifically the placement of her trailing leg as she descended from each hurdle.
“I was really just focusing on my form and trail leg,” she said. “I needed to work on bringing it up and around a lot quicker and just staying lower over the hurdle because sometimes I tend to jump high over it, which takes more time. Being quicker in between the hurdles [was also important], so I did speed drills.”
Kennedy also set a personal record in the 300-meter hurdles with 47.98 seconds, which she later beat with her first place time — 46.84 seconds — at the Mt. Carmel Sundevil Invitational, March 29. The latter time set a new Westview 300-meter hurdles school record.
“It has only semi-sunken in that I beat those school records,” she said. “It’s been a goal for a really long time. Last year, I definitely was working towards it, and I got close, but this year I was like, ‘I’m not messing around. I need to get it together because it’s my senior season.’ Going into this season, I was like, ‘I know I want both of these school records this year in the 100 and 300,’ so getting it out of me was just really nice. That’s been my biggest goal. I’m really happy about it.”
