The Atlantic Girl’s Track Team are gearing up for the 2024 season with a new wave of senior leadership, medal winning experience, and 34 poised athletes. Head Coach Matt Mullenix is looking forward to the confidence and experience that having medal winners bring.

One of the strengths of this year’s program will be the sprinting and hurdling events. Atlantic will have state medal winners senior Claire Pellett, sophomore Taylee Hagen, junior Morgan Botos, junior Mariah Huffman, junior Hailey Huffman, sophomore Adler Bruce, and sophomore Jacie Reed competing.

Another positive influence for the future success of this track season is the mindset that all of the Trojans seem to have. Pellett discussed how the team is buying in to the idea of being unified and putting in disciplined work.

One unique aspect of this year’s Girl’s Track Team is the theme of “Feed the Cats”. A philosophy based on lions when hunting prey, that when you’re not hunting you should be conserving energy. With so many of Atlantic’s athletes being multi-sport participants, Coach Mullenix saw that this idea could help to mitigate injuries and have the maximum amount of energy available for his runners. It’s a notion that runners like Pellet is fully behind.

Senior hurdler Avery Knuth also explained that a focus for the team this year is to not stop working no matter the difficulty and take each day as it comes.

Atlantic will contend at the Indoor meet in Ames today and then head to Northwest Missouri State University on March 16th.