The Struthers Wildcats track team and Cadence Shorthouse had their county meet at Austintown Fitch High School on Saturday, April 22nd.

The county meet is a very important event for track. Many schools from around the county bring their best runners from their team.

Shorthouse runs the 4×4 and the open 400; she is one of the better 400 runners for the girls on the team.

The athlete believes that she could have performed better, but due to the weather, she didn’t perform as well as she hoped.

“I believed I could have done better. Given that the weather was so bad, it was really hard to adapt. My muscles were tense and by the end of my race I couldn’t feel my legs. I ran my worst time this year so far, and it’s hard to know mentally that you’re physically taking steps back,” says Shorthouse.

The runner has been taking the necessary steps to prepare for the meets during the week by providing her body the necessities to stay healthy.

Shorthouse thinks that she has been doing all she can to prepare for the meets.

“It’s really hard to prepare for the meets since everything is at the last minute. Relays are always getting changed, and legs are always getting switched. The only thing you really can do is try and get a good enough night’s rest, drink water, and eat food to fuel your body,” says Shorthouse.

The Struthers 4×4 team for the girls faced adversity in the meet; two runners didn’t run, so they had to improvise putting two other girls in it.

The student athlete thinks that the team could have performed better as a whole.

“The team could have performed better, I was personally satisfied with my performance in the relay, but as a whole, we could have done better,” says Shorthouse.