State Champion spotlight: Tucker Corbett York
Senior Tucker Corbett won the Class B 400m title in dominating fashion and in the process helped lead his team to its 3 state team title in 4 years. We caught up with Tucker to ask a few questions about his preparation before the meet, his mindset on meet day, and what it meant to bring the state title back to York.
What were your preparations leading up to the state meet?
As a team we try to keep our routines the same all throughout the year. Workouts are made to get us to peak for the important meets but besides that nothing changes. Personally I don't think of states as a different meet. I just run it like every other meet and approach it that way too.
How did you deal with the pressure and emotions that come along with competing in a state meet?
I have a fairly cool head when it comes to pressure and emotions. I don't let either cloud my head especially not for important meets like states. Just knowing I'll be able to run better without over thinking lets me run the race normally.
You dominated the 400m winning by almost two seconds, what was the key to your race?
When you run a race and you either have the best seed time or maybe a particular meet doesn't have a whole lot of competition in an event you have to run against your own time. I've been trying to get the school record for a while now and that has been enough motivation for me to improve my times. The training I've done for the 400 specifically has been a huge help and my coaches always help me improve form and race strategy.
You helped lead your team to the state title, what does it mean to be a senior and bring the title back to York after missing out a year ago?
It was really nice to be able to get another title for indoor. The four years I've run indoor track with the York team has been four of its strongest years and I'm really proud to be a part of that. Not getting the state title last year was tough but it essentially just motivated us more to do well this year. Our team has huge participation in states with 13 athletes scoring which is great to see that it really is a team win.
Coming into the season what were your goals and did you achieve them?
My overall goal was to do what I could to help the team earn the state title. I wanted to get another title for the team and myself. My freshman year I scored points in states making me the only one on the current team to score for all of our titles. I was hoping I could do the same this year to bring us back a trophy. Personally I wanted to break the school record for the 400 and 200. I achieved both of these records during Western Maine Championship setting me up with great seed times for states. The individual title for the 400 wasn't so much a goal as it was a result of wanting to help the team and get the 400 record for my school.
How do you think winning an individual state title will effect you heading into outdoors?
Indoors this year wasn't all that competitive for the 400 which was understandable due to the amount of seniors where in it last year. Winning the title indoors is an awesome feeling but I don't think it'll effect me for outdoor. I still have to see who's running it outdoors and who the top guys are gonna be. It would be incredible to get the 400 title outdoor too but getting the indoor title definitely doesn't seal the deal for outdoor.
Corbett's 400m Progression
- 2015 Indoor 51.25
- 2014 Indoor 53.03
- 2012 Indoor 54.39
2014-15 Results
| 51.69 | 1st | 2015-02-16 | Class B Indoor State Championship | » | |
| 51.25 | 1st | 2015-02-06 | WMC Championship | » | |
| 51.72 | 1st | 2015-01-23 | WMC: CE, GNG, Freeport, Falm, LR, Traip,York, St. Dom's | » | |
| 52.37 | 1st | 2015-01-16 | WMC: Cape, LR, Freeport, Yarmouth, GNG, York, Greely, St Dom's | » | |
| 52.57 | 1st | 2015-01-09 | WMC: Traip, York, Falm, YARM, GNG,PRHS,SV |