Staff Writer

Danica Gleason can run. And jump and shot-put. Unusual? Perhaps not, but what makes Gleason a standout is the completion of a perfect indoor track season, the first in the history of Memorial Middle School, according to coach Jason Edwards. 

Gleason said she began participating in indoor track a couple of years ago as something to do in the downtime between softball and basketball seasons. 

“It seemed fun,” she said. “But I didn’t think I would do this well.”

Edwards said Gleason’s first year was “mediocre at best,” but this year she “blew everybody away.” Edwards said after several meets, he knew Gleason had a chance for a perfect season. He said in more than 20 years of record keeping at the school, no one has completed a perfect season until Gleason. 

To achieve the perfect season, Gleason competed in hurdles, shot-put and as anchor of the relay team. Edwards said “no one was close in the hurdles,” adding Gleason began running the event last year. 

“To be the champion in eighth grade after one year is incredible,” Edwards said.

The shot-put throw of an 8-pound ball, turned out to be the deciding factor.

“It came down to the final throw in the shot-put,” Edwards said. “Once it happened, then, for me, it was trying to fathom how big it is. It’s really hard to do.”

Edwards said Gleason’s perfect season would have remained intact without a win by the relay team, but said the relay team clinched Gleason’s place in school history. 

“That was probably the most nervous I’d ever been, was that relay,” Gleason said. 

The eighth grade student said she does not know if she will continue to participate in indoor track during high school, in spite of her success this year. 

“I have no idea right now,” she said, adding she has played softball and basketball nearly “forever.”

Gleason said she celebrated her accomplishment with ice cream.

Edwards said Gleason is a good example of how dedication to a sport can improve an athlete’s success. 

“She worked and she got what she worked for,” he said. “It’s not every day you see that kind of talent come through.”

Edwards said many middle schools do not keep records and said leagues at the middle school level record just the top three finishers each year. Indoor track is more competitive because there is less conflict with other sports during the winter, Edward said. He estimated 1,000 students participated in indoor track this season. 

The middle school indoor track season ended March 28 with the Middle School Festival Meet in Portland. Gleason’s final season point tally totaled 67.5. She finished the hurdles with a win of more than a half second, her shot-put throw went 28-feet, 5-inches, more than 8-inches farther than the second place competitor, and the relay team of captains Gleason and Katelyn Violette with Nyajock Pan and Georgia Thury-Anderson ran the 840-yard relay in a time of 1:59.9. The relay team scored the second best time in the history of Memorial Middle School, Edwards said.