All eyes were on the distance medley relay (DMR) team as Luc Brennan, Ethan Bae, Jackson Bae, and Rowan Henige prepared to break Sequoia’s DMR record. Then, March 18 at the Stanford Invitational track meet, the four runners beat their previous record with a time of 10 minutes and 46.05 seconds. An invitational is a track meet that you get invited to for performing well in regular meets.

Before this year the record for the DMR was 11 minutes and 21 seconds in 2000 for Sequoia. Along with breaking the school record, the team also met the qualifying standard for the Arcadia Invitational. The Arcadia Invitational is a track and field event known for being one of the most competitive in the country and as the home of national records. 

How the runners overcame their struggle and how they improved early on in their running careers heavily contributed to the school record being broken, and the team being so successful. 

“My freshman year I was solid, but then it all got canceled. Sophomore year was pretty weak, but towards the end of the season it got better,” Junior Rowan Henige said.

The runner getting more committed to running and bettering his mile time each year helped significantly in beating in the Sequoia DMR record. The runners also started to work harder and put more effort into improving.

“I ran a five minute and six second mile my freshman year and I ran a four minute and 47 second mile my sophomore year and then a four minute and 33 second mile junior year, and I hope to go low 4:20s this year,” senior Jackson Bae said. 

Another huge reason for the record being broken is the runners inspiring each other to do better and push themselves. 

“Each one of us is getting better individually. That inspires more people to get better and stuff like that. So the longer we have like solid people running the better the team overall gets every year,” senior Ethan Bae said. 

The competition that exists between these runners helped them improve and try to get faster and faster. Now that the DMR record was broken we asked the runners if they have any other goals for the season. 

“My goals for this season is to run under four minutes and 20 seconds  in the 1600 meter race and under two minutes in the 800 meter race,” Henige said. 

With the track and field season still early in the spring season, the runners are working hard and meeting goals.. Between developing new skills and extending their running careers, runners have a varsity of goals to set and meet during the season.

“My goal for the season is to win the mile and maybe win the two mile depending on what to focus on.  Another goal I have this season is to reach the CCS finals,” Ethan Bae said. 

The Central Coast Section (CCS) is a play-off competition for high schools in the central coast section of California to compete and in order to compete you need to qualify.

“Also I just want to get potential looks and offers from colleges and those are the times I need to run to kick those then I’ll try and hit those,” Henige said.