Natasha Tchir, Reporter
@ntchircourant
While the winter weather may not be winding down anytime soon, this is not stopping the girls spring track team from commencing their season. For the first time, the team will open the season with the newly redone track, allowing both returning and new members to experience the improvements.
Head coach Jeffrey Brentson is already noticing the physical changes to the track. “It is much bigger and flatter and there are a lot more improvements with the quality of the surface; there’s a lot of underlayment under there which was not in the old track,” he said. “You didn’t notice it, but in the old track you tended to go up and down as you went around it.”
As well as bringing visual appeal to the track, Coach Brentson says that the new layout will impact the performance of the runners during meets. “In the time of an event when it comes down to tenths or hundredths of a second you can notice those details. Since a number of events are contested at that level it does have an impact on the team,” he said.
One of four team co-captains, senior Megan Waldron, has noted effect that the renovation has on the way the season will run. “It’s much bigger so it is going to be easier to host meets,” she said.
The added space not only affects the meets, but changes the entirety of their practices as well. “We have two whole straightaways now so the girls and the boys can be on different sides of the track,” Brentson said. In addition to extra lanes, flat, surfaced areas were added to provide more space for exercising. “We have two D-Zones which are the end of the track that are now surfaced, so it adds even more area to work out and do conditioning,” he said.
As well as increasing the amount of space, changes will be made to the practice schedule to improve the quality of the practices from previous years. “We’re having the boys and girls practice at different times on Saturday so it’s not as crowded and we can get more done,” Megan said.
Many excelling runners are no longer part of the team, co-captain, senior Chloe McAuliffe, notes is another change for this season. “ We had a lot of seniors leaving [for college]after the last season, like Drew Davis,” she said.
Though this may be the case, there are many returning members who have performed well over the past seasons. “We have some good middle and longer distance runners, like Chloe and
juniors Katie Miller and Elaina Tiller that are experienced with both our mid and longer distance events,” Coach Brentson said.
No matter how well the team does throughout the season co-captain, senior Nichole LaBadie, has a positive outlook on the coming months. “ It’s going to be a really fun season I think,” she said. “We’re expecting a good time and a close team.”
