It takes more than just practicing to compete in track and field; the right diet and motivation are big contributions to performing well.

Senior Colton Beaumont, a sprinter and jumper, eats carbohydrates like spaghetti the day of or the day before a meet for extra energy. According to Central Washington University, eating high carbohydrate meals every day keeps glycogen stores full. Glycogen is a primary energy site for storage in human bodies as reported by LIVESTRONG.

Shot put thrower Meghann Gottfried and sprinter Davia Clarke both agree that changing their daily diet before a meet and during track season is important, saying they cut out junk food and stay hydrated.

“I change my diet,” Clarke said. “No junk food and rarely any beef. And no soda.” Gottfried added, “No junk food for the win.”

While Gottfried cuts out junk food, she holds onto the soda.

“Before a meet I usually drink a Dr. Pepper,” Gottfried said. “One time before a meet one of the girls told me that if I drink Dr. Pepper, it would make me throw farther as a joke. I believed her, so I’ve done that ever since.”

Superstitions and must-dos are components to athletes’ success. For Clarke and Beaumont, it is listening to Eminem. Gottfried listens to “Fergalicious,” calling it her her “theme song.”

Although always maintaining their exercise and diets, these athletes never forget to give their body a rest..

“I usually stretch throughout the day ,” Beaumont said.

Clarke rolls her body out with a foam roller to relax her muscles in the training room.

Coaching themselves into believing they will win is motivation for these athletes.

“I tell myself that great isn’t good enough,” Clarke said. “I focus all of my negativity around me into my energy and think to myself ‘I’m the best’.