Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell Track and Field team has been working hard since Thanksgiving to get ready for the 2026 season and got their first opportunity to compete Saturday January 10th at Youngstown State University in the first indoor meet of the winter season.
The first meet of the winter provides a chance to see progress and evaluate strengths and weaknesses. Expectations are not always high this early in January, because there is still so much work to do, but the Hopewell girls started off with a bang anyway, breaking two school records in the process.
Sophomore Tessa Burgess was the first Viking to compete, and in her first ever 60m hurdles race, she broke the school record with a 10.66 second run in the prelims. Tessa was a WPIAL qualifier in the 100m hurdles last spring as a freshman, so this fast start is a promise of great things to come. The previous record of 10.77 was held by Jordan Pershin since 2017.
Tessa was part of a second school record on the day when she teamed up with seniors Madison Inderelst and Maya Richburg, and fellow sophomore Harley Hample in the 4x200m relay.
The girls combined to run a time of 1:57.40 and finishing 6th overall. The previous record of 1:59.60 was set by Lauryn Speicher, Leia Day, Ryann Essey, and Aubryanna Snyder in 2022, all of whom are competing at the collegiate level.
The girls will have 3 more chances this winter to improve on their record, the next one coming February 1st at Mount Union.
