The Ma’ayanot track team is a source of pride for many students and members of the Ma’aynot family. While the team does not participate in the “field” part, such as long jumps and hurdles of traditional Track and Field meets, its members have been very successful in races. Team members often participate in the 50-meter, 100-meter, 200-meter, and 400-meter dashes, along with a team relay race. Each race is run twice, to allow for there to be more scores, and two or three members of each school participate in each race. The team consists mostly of freshmen, along with a few sophomores and juniors. Coach Marta, a Ma’ayanot Physical Education teacher, is the team leader.
Because of the cold weather, the team can only have two or three track meets every year because it must stop practicing around November and cannot start again until April. The first track meet took place at The Frisch School at the beginning of the year, along with participants from Frisch and TABC. The Ma’ayanot team members won many of the races, including the 400- and 100-meter dashes. They also took second and third place in many of the other races.
The second track meet took place at Frisch, just a few weeks after Pesach. Many more schools participated in the second meet, such as Ramaz, SAR, Frisch, Kushner, and TABC. The Ma’ayanot team members again placed well in many of the races and walked out as third-place winners.
The team is one of Ma’ayanot’s most successful teams and plans to continue practicing until the end of the school year. It looks forward to one more track meet before the school year ends—then its members plan to start practicing and winning more races again in the fall.
By Shena Adler