While Pine Crest students were enjoying the final weekend of their spring break soaking up sun at the beach, five members of the Pine Crest track team were on a flight from FLL to LAX to compete in the Arcadia Invitational in Los Angeles, California.

Coach Paul Baur stated how proud he was of the girls that competed and talked about the strict standards in which the girls needed to pass in order to qualify for a nationwide meet, “The meet had very strict entry standards which our girls qualified for and an invitation from the meet director.  We were already nationally ranked and that helped get us in this year. They only took the top 24 teams for the Invitational races, so to even make that cut is very tough.”

The girls that participated in the 4×1600 meter relay team, placing 2nd at the meet and setting a new Florida state record by 10 seconds were Amanda Schwartz (’20), Mahdere Yared (’21), Emily Faulhaber (’20), and Tsion Yared (’20). Fellow teammate Maya Beleznay (‘20) also competed in the 3200 meter race. The remarkable achievement made by the girls that competed in the 4×1600 earned them the impressive title of currently being the second fastest time in the country and the 13th fastest time ever to be recorded in history.

In addition to setting records and running their hearts out on the track, the girls were able to do some sight seeing and visited the Santa Monica Pier, Hollywood Wax Museum, and Beverly Hills. Freshman Mahdere Yared stated, “I had a lot of fun touring around California for my very first time with my teammates and coaches, and would love to go back again,” and Sophomore Amanda Schwartz stated, “it was so cool running in California because it was so pretty and the weather there was amazing.”

The time that the girls set, will forever go down in history but the girls stated that the memories that they made will stay with them forever. Sophomore Emily Faulhaber talked about how proud she was to represent Pine Crest and stated, “Going to Arcadia was an incredible experience to race against some of the best competition from around the country. Being able to attend such an important meet and to perform as well as we did was really special.”

Freshman Mahdere Yared talked about the obstacles that come with competing in such a prestigious meet from getting used to the time zone change to witnessing many of the 24 girls on the track falling throughout the race,  “I knew that there would be so many fast runners to compete with, and I wanted to do my best for the team.” But clearly, despite these adversities the girls were able to push through and shatter records and all while making amazing memories with each other.