Luis Lopez Casimir is a freshman at South Windsor High School. Although it is his first year with the indoor track team, he has made a huge impact already. Being on the varsity team and competing at the Yale Track Classic as a freshman was one of his many accomplishments this season.
“Yale was way bigger than I expected it to be. It seemed almost like a colosseum and everyone there was a lot older than me. It felt great to know that I was already able to keep up with them,” Lopez Casimir explained.
He recently competed in the men’s 55-meter dash and long jump at the Central Connecticut Conference (CCCs) and Last Chance State Qualifier.
He placed 111 out of 177 runners in the 55 meter dash. Sprinting for 7.13 seconds. This was a new personal record that he hoped to break at the Last Chance State Qualifier, and he did so cutting his time down to 7.05.
Initially, Lopez Casimer started track because his friends forced him to and because everyone was telling him he should. Moving up to the high school level was a big change for him. Even with that change, Lopez Casimir finds that “track in high school is fun but at the end of the day your legs hurt a lot.”
With this new change also came new coaches and teammates. When asked about who he looks up to and is inspired by the most, Lopez Casimer said, “probably my teammate Bella (Izabella McKenna) because she is always helping me with my starts and taught me how to use blocks. She can be a little scary but at the end of the day she will push you to do better than you have the day before.”
Lopez Casimer is looking forward to a big meet coming up on Friday, February 14th. He has been working hard at practice in preparation for it.
While Lopez Casimir is confident in his abilities, he does have a little bit of nerves before races, which he has had to learn how to deal with.
“Before a race, if I’m ever nervous I just dance a little bit of salsa because it is part of my (Puerto Rican) culture and helps calm me down,” Lopez Casimir told The Prowl.
With this in mind, Lopez Casimir also has a lot of goals he wishes to accomplish in his track season. One of his biggest goals is to get faster and to “compete in states”.
Even with Lopez Casimir being only a freshman he helps his teammates and gives them advice before a race like ‘don’t look back’. He said that the track environment is friendly and the runners are nice.
He will be continuing on this spring during the Outdoor Track season.
