In his freshman year, following years of racing track, Aaron Silber ’26 joined the LM Unified Track team for the first time. He not only found a community where he could focus on enjoying running but has attained remarkable feats. In just his freshman year, Silber achieved some impressive performances and competed at the highly prestigious Penn Relays, performing exceptionally well. This success would never be possible without the work that came before it.
Silber has always loved to run and compete, passionately explaining that “when I was little, I liked running and sprinting a lot.” His first experience with organized running was when he joined track in seventh grade, which led him to run track once again the year after that. During his freshman year, he signed up for cross country. Silber explains that “it was a different experience than track because it’s more distance-based, which I wasn’t used to, but I got used to it pretty fast.” This adaptability helped him when, for the spring season, he chose to do Unified Track instead of boys’ track and field. He had two main reasons for making this switch. Firstly, his brother, Ethan Silber ’24, ran Unified Track and Silber believed that “it would be nice to be on the same team as my brother.” Silber continues that “another reason why I decided to do Unified Track is because it cleared up more space for me to practice wrestling.” Silber had picked up wrestling and enjoyed it, and Unified Track allowed him to better participate across multiple sports. This decision turned out to be invaluable, as he found happiness and success on the Unified Track team.
Silber entered a community built on supporting others and providing a fun space for athletes to compete. Silber states the team is built around the idea that “you’re not only benefiting yourself, you’re benefiting others.” This community creates an environment “more based on having fun rather than stressing out over everything,” says Silber. With cross country and boys’ or girls’ track, there is a high level of commitment and pressure to do as well as you possibly can, resulting in stress. Because Unified Track is “more low-commitment and relaxed,” explains Silber, he can just focus on enjoying the running and competing. Silber is very grateful to be able to participate in Unified Track, recognizing that “I’m really lucky that I get to be a part of this experience.” In the fall, his stress negatively affected his performance, so he had faith that “having fun will make me do better.” Unified Track made him recognize the importance of the fun aspect of competition. However, it is important to recognize that this fun has not resulted in Silber losing his competitive edge. His fastest time last season in the 100-meter dash was a very impressive 12.2 seconds. He also helped contribute to the team winning the County Championship for the first time in LM history. His most notable performance was at the Penn Relays. The Penn Relays is perhaps the most prestigious and competitive track meet in the entire country, attracting international attention. Here, Silber qualified for the 100-meter dash and the 4×100 meter relay race. Silber was surprised that he qualified in the 100 as easily as he did and was only told he would even be racing in the event with very short notice. In the 4×100, the relay placed sixth out of nine teams in their heat, reaching their goal of finishing under a minute, with a time of 59.1 seconds. “I think that was a pretty good accomplishment,” comments Silber. In his 100, he placed third with a 12.91, earning himself a medal. Silber was proud of his performance in this race, commenting that “I was just happy I got a medal.” What is especially impressive is that Silber did all this as just a freshman; he was the youngest runner by multiple years in the 100. Now, Silber holds high hopes for what this Unified Track season may look like.
This season, the Aces plan to return to the Penn Relays. No one from last year’s 4×100 graduated, so the group feels confident that they can improve. Individually, Silber automatically qualified for the Penn Relays this year due to his performances last year. Last year’s first-place finisher ran a 12.15, so Silber holds the belief that ”if I become serious, I can break sub-12 [seconds] and hopefully this year get first place.” Clearly, Silber and the team have a bright season ahead of them.
