 "Photo: Kent-Meridian Track")
It was only this January that the plan to form a track team for Green River was announced. At the time it was mostly embraced as a tool for recruiting better cross country athletes.
While that has proven to work – Tori Ammons, head coach of both the cross country and the track teams, has already been able to bring in some new runners for next year – there has been success in a different area as well.
A surprising number of the team's 44 athletes have been running and scoring well, which has resulted in Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) Athlete of the Week awards for Josh Melu, triple jumper, and Taylor Hughes, runner.
For Hughes, that was the highlight of his season. He hasn't lost a single 800-meter race this season, he says, but the best thing by far was the victory lap he got to run after his award at the Oregon Relays meet.
"There was a crowd full of people and I threw my shirt up at the crowd," he recalled, laughing.
He is currently talking to the University of Washington about transferring there. If successful, Hughes, 20 years old and graduating shortly, would be the first successful transfer since the team's return.
Ammons still sees room for some improvements that could be made to the team. With a little more preparation time she hopes to recruit more athletes by next year.
This year it was not possible for the team to compete in the overall category since it didn't have enough players to officially place at the meet. This will be the case at the NWAACC Championships on May 22 and 23 as well.
And, now that the tennis program has been cut, there may be money to introduce things like shot put and javelin throwing, although it would likely cost more than what is available.
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