Bishop Blanchet’s track and field team was caught off guard during their last league meet of the season on May 4. 

What started off as a sunny, 70 degree day, drastically changed.

“I’m not expecting much,” said junior Drew Schornak at the beginning of the meet. “It’s too hot – not my type of temperature.”

Schornak described his preferred running conditions to be 60 degrees and misty. He was scheduled to run in the men’s 3200 meter race – the second to last event in the meet.

Within an hour, clouds began to block out the sun, and the wind picked up. Half way through the second heat of the men’s 1600 meter race, athletes and spectators were ushered inside to avoid the dangers of impending lightning. Only one third of the meet had been raced so far.

Junior superstar Emma Flood had spent the previous half hour warming up for the women’s 1600 meter race until the meet was put on hold immediately before her event.

“I am so mad right now,” said Flood. “It just messes up the warm up. We were all ready to go, all ready to get on the line and race, and they were like ‘just kidding 30 mins’ which makes me mad.”

The Nathan Hale gymnasium quickly filled with athletes – some more anxious to get back to the track than others.

“I kinda want there to be a meet so I can do better in my discus,” said junior Jack Dingfield, “but there is also the APUSH test tomorrow and I’m kinda freakin’ out about that, and I need to study and go to bed at like 8:00 for that, so I have mixed feelings about the meet right now.”

Many juniors spent their time inside quizzing each other on elements of U.S. History to make use of their unexpected down time.

Returning outside around 4:55, the girls were only given a few minutes to prepare themselves once again. Paused at the starting line in order to let the high jumpers finish up their events, the track meet finally restarted in breezy weather.

Within twenty minutes, however, thunder echoed, the ominous rain began again, and the remainder of the meet was canceled. Originally planning to hold the rest of the meet the following day, it was later decided to renege all scores from the meets in the Seattle area and not reschedule due to Metro Championships taking place the following week.

Schornak was unable to race – whether he preferred the weather or not, but his and everyone else’s next chances will be on May 10 and 12, at the Metro Championships, or on May 11 for Metro JV All-comers.