Polk County’s track teams, and head coach Alan Peoples, have been an item of sorts for nearly 30 years, because the teams keep winning. His athletes keep winning and Peoples keeps smiling.

Talent is a big part of the winning, but don’t discount coaching savvy. Peoples is wont to say how much he enjoys working with his athletes.

Two fine and connected examples are Polk’s men placing first, and the women a close second, in the May 3 Western Highlands Conference meet at Polk, and Peoples’ recent earning of the National Federation of State High School Association’s 2015 Coach of the Year (2015) honor for men’s cross country at the state level.

Peoples’ qualifications for the award include having over 40 athletes compete at the collegiate level, having had 40 state champions, being a certified USATF Level I and II coach, being a certified USATF official for collegiate and high school competition, and being a certified NFHS official, to name just a few.

His honors, accomplishments, the experience, his judgment and assessment of talent, helped carry off last week’s WHC results.

Polk’s female and male runners took firsts in their respective 4×800-meter relay races. Polk’s Sean Doyle earned 35 of the men’s team’s 155 points, by winning the men’s 1,600-meter run (4:44.05), the men’s 800-meter run (2:05.41), and the 3,200-meter run (10:15.95).

As an example of how Peoples knows how to place his athletes to earn points, Doyle placed fourth in the men’s high jump (5:06.00) to earn five points (each first-place finish was good for ten points).

Jake Justice earned a first for Polk in the long jump (18-07.00).

Polk’s India Godlock scored 28 points for the women’s team, with first-place finishes in the 800-meter (2:37.97) and 1,600-meter (5:45.92) runs. Including her second-place finishes in the women’s long jump and 400-meter dash, Mariah Overholt added 23.5 points.

Emma Wagoner (third) and Overholt (fourth) added points in the 800-meter run, behind Godlock’s first-place finish. In addition, Wagoner won the women’s triple jump event (33-01.00).

In the shot put, Polk’s Micheala Nelon (second) and Tameeia Brown (third) helped pile on the points.

In addition to entering athletes in events they’re likely to win, Peoples will also enter them in seemingly unrelated events that might prompt one to ask, “Why?”

Peoples notes, “You have to move people where you get the most points.”

That sounds simple, but knowing where to move whom requires experience and judgment.

This Saturday, May 14, Polk hosts the regional track and field meet. Starting time is 9 a.m.