“The Quad” is a fun tradition we have at Palatine. On our website our coach says “the Quad club is a special place reserved only for those Lady Pirate runners who have attempted and completed the grueling task of running all four distance events (4x800m, 3200m, 800m, 1600m), or mid-distance (4x800m, 800m, 400m, and 4x400m), in one track meet on the same day”. If you make it through the night, you’re officially part of the Quad Squad, and we keep records on how people do each year.
This year’s Quad Day was our recent Triangular meet with Fremd and Wheeling. After completing the distance-quad both my sophomore and junior season, I was in the mid-distance quad this year. As the girls doing the distance quad started the 3200, while still catching their breath from the 4x8, I thought I was glad to not have to do that tough turnaround this year. However, I soon found out the mid-distance quad was no easy feat either. My legs felt like jelly by the end of the night, and I know many of my teammates agreed.
Overall it was a great night of work for everyone. I was especially impressed with junior Megan Beach who did the distance quad and ran the 3200 in right around the same time she did in an invite last weekend. Then later in the meet she got asked to prom! By the end of the night everyone was tired, but excited they made it and thankful that we only do this once a year. We have our own quad related spin on the acronym yolo (you only live once). We say yoqoay (you only quad once a year). Some of the girls still had enough energy by the end of the night to try to spell this out in a picture.
Shout-outs this week go to the greatest event in track and field. Some of you might be thinking it’s the 4x400 relay, but really it’s the lesser run 4x100 Throwers Relay. We just ran a throwers relay in our invite last weekend and as usual it did not disappoint in terms of excitement. Yorkville edged Downer’s Grove North and Palatine for the win. Cheering sections from all the teams went wild and as always it was a lot of fun. Great job to any thrower who has ever competed in a throwers relay! Another shout-out goes to our cross-town rival Fremd for running the fastest 4x800m to date in the state (9:21.63) during our MSL West Division meet last Tuesday. Great job ladies on an impressive performance!