Encouraging teammates and overwhelming support led Unified Track to have a successful meet against Westborough on May 9. The majority of the athletes beat their personal records, which is the team’s main goal.

Unified track brings together athletes with and without intellectual disabilities to create a welcoming and supportive environment. The team pays less attention to the overall scoring of the meet and more to personal improvement.

Senior captain Lily Schaefer expanded on the overall meaning of Unified Track.

“The overall goal of Unified Track is to create an environment where everyone has the opportunity to try new things,” Schaefer said.

This was the first meet where Algonquin competed against Westborough, rather than with them as one team. The team split last year into two seperate teams.

Coach Kevin Hausmann was proud of both teams and their performance in the meet.

“That was another fantastic meet between two great towns. We saw a lot of personal records at this meet,” Hausmann said.

The meet consisted of fielding and running events, including relays. Javelin, shot put and long jump are the three fielding events, while multiple distances and relays make up the running events.

There were exceptional improvements in fielding events. Senior Sam Morse improved his long jump by 6 feet, jumping 10 feet 6 inches. Senior Cecilia Arcona improved her javelin throw by 5 feet, with her best coming in at 53 feet 2 inches.

Junior Joey McEvoy competed in shot put, 100 meter and 4×100 meter.

“My teammates have really helped be improve this season,” McEvoy said.

As for running events, post grad Alexis Sokoloff came in first in 100m, with a time of 23.96 seconds, a 5 second improvement over her former personal record. Sam Robert finished first in the 800 meter, tying Westborough’s Raaj Kumar at 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Robert’s performance improved his personal record by 13 seconds.

Junior captain Sofia Roumiantsev participated in long jump and 100 m.

“I did really well today,” Roumiantsev said. “Unified Track makes me really happy and I have a lot of my friends’ support.”

Hausmann was recently named Coach of the Year for Unified track and field by the MIAA. Hausmann has been the head coach for the last seven years and it is his first time winning this award.

“We have one more home meet against another rival, Nashoba,” Hausmann said. “We would love people to come out and watch.”

The team will compete next at Assabet Valley Regional Vocational High School on Wednesday, May 22 at 3:00.