For the week of January 31, 2022, the Bel Air Bobcats winter track team will be preparing for regionals. The regional meet will be on February 9, 202,2 and will feature all Maryland high school track clubs.

Coaches Sharon Pickett, Amy McDermott and Julian Pickett will all be preparing their respected groups for the region meet. “We are very excited to see what our athletes can do,” said Coach Sharon. The Bobcats will be participating in the central division with 15 other schools. Most of the teams in the central division are 3A schools but one team is a 4A school. This meet will be very competitive as winners will be going to the Maryland state meet. The regional meet will be located at the Maryland 5th Regiment Armory in downtown Baltimore. The first event(s) will happen at 4:00 and will likely be a multi-hour event as many teams are participating.

The Bobcats have had only one open meet and one invitational meet in preparation of states. To kick off the season the Bobcats hosted an open meet with other schools and the county, and the Bobcats attended an invite only meet hosted by Franklin and Marshall College where many schools in the central east coast attended. There were over 50 schools that attended the invitational meet. This meet truly showed how the Bobcats will stack up facing other student athletes across the state. “Many of our athletes did really well and were very grateful for the chance to compete,” said Julian Pickett”.

After many weeks of practice, the coaches will start to choose their athletes to compete at the regional meet. On Tuesday, February 1, 2022, the coach’s hosted an inner squad meet to help the process of choosing. There was a total of 5 events to determine athlete’s events at the regional meet. As the regional meet is on February 9th the coaches must choose by Friday February 4th. The coaches still have some changes to make but are on their final edits of the roster heading to regionals. “We are very confident in these group of athletes to do their very best at the regional meet,” said coach Amy McDermott.

The athletes are ready and they will be the ones competing. The athletes have had 4 days of practice every week and are finally ready for the chance to compete again. Most of meets have been cancelled because of Harford County Schools not allowing sports teams to leave the county. Many of the athletes are eager to play because of the hiatus in competition. “I cannot wait to go out there and throw again,” said Alex Visconti.

Overall, the Bel Air Bobcats has had a season full of surprises and are ready for the regional and state meets to begin. After months of training and only two total meets the Bobcats look to make a splash in regionals as they still prepare for February 9th.