The track season was off to great start this year with several of the relays placing high in the state. Unfortunately, in the last few weeks injury and sickness have taken their toll on the team. The hardest hit relay has been the boys 4×400. The boys have fallen from second to 7th in the state due to a variety of issues.

Shin splints caused one member to miss two weeks of meets hurting the team at KU relays, but not so much at the home meet. Junior DeRay Johnson, a member of the team and recently highly improved has had his fair share of ups and downs.

After two big PRs at consecutive meets his season was looking up, but in the last three weeks things have taken a turn for the worst.

First, he was informed that there was a possible micro-fracture in his lower shin, just above the ankle. This benched him for a week and left him out of the St. Thomas Aquinas Invitational. After he was cleared by doctors and had been running steadily in preparation for North Relays more bad news ensued. Johnson was diagnosed with mono, a virus I’m sure we’ve all heard of.

Mono is another bane of athletes and students everywhere, and this is surely not the first time West track has been hit. In 2011 West had a stand out girl 400 runner in Jamie Eschrich. She was 2nd in the state and even a favorite to potentially win. Just weeks before the state meet she came down mono and it ended her senior season and high school track career.

Although DeRay is only a junior and isn’t done forever, this is still very hard news. It is not yet clear whether or not he is out for the season as this depends on the severity of his case. Either way his coaches and teammates wait in anticipation for his recovery.