LYNN — With the first week of the “Fall Sports II” season in full effect, the St. Mary’s track and field team is excited to finally get back to competing against another team. The Spartans were able to practice all winter long due to the out-of-season coaching rules, so the anticipation for an actual meet has been building for months.
“Everyone is so excited to officially be back,” said head coach Tristan Smith, who also coaches the cross country team in the fall. “We practiced all through the winter, so we’ve been itching to get started. It’s incredible to see so many kids taking advantage of the sport being at this time of year and joining. We’ve had a number of basketball and hockey players who normally wouldn’t play for us join the team, so that’s exciting as well.”
St. Mary’s will certainly benefit from the fact that running was one of the only sports that kids have been able to safely participate in for much of the past year, so the long layoff isn’t having as much of an effect as it could on some other sports. The runners have all come back in shape and ready to go, many after completing a successful cross country season in the fall.
“You’d think that after not having an outdoor season last year and having such a long layoff, the kids would’ve come back and maybe regressed a bit,” said Smith. “But we didn’t see that at all. Kids had even lower cross country times in the fall and now they’re hoping to keep that momentum going right into this season.”
In addition to the influx of basketball and hockey players on the roster, there is a solid group of runners returning from last year’s team. Leading the way is Kyle Kwiatek, a freshman who had a huge cross country season in the fall and who has been competing in a number of Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association (MSTCA) meets over the winter. Junior captain Juliana Taborda is also looking to follow up a big cross country season, but she’s mainly going to focus on being a mid-distance runner with a specialty in the 600-meter. John Nowicki is back with the track team after leaving cross country for hockey a couple of years ago, and he’ll be competing as a sprinter in the 100, 200 and 400 as well as potentially trying the hurdles. Seniors Declan Dorgan and Ava Benzan are also back for another season.
“We have a great group of runners coming back and all of them are very dedicated to running and continuing to get better,” said Smith. “I’m excited to see what they’ll all be able to do this season.”
While the safety rules for track aren’t as strict as they are in other sports, COVID is still affecting the structure of the season as all meets will take place on Saturdays.
“It’s a little strange, but to me it feels more like a college season where you prepare all week for a meet and then run on Saturday,” said Smith. “I think it makes it more exciting and I think the kids will enjoy the feeling.”
St. Mary’s opens up its season Saturday morning (10) on the road at Bishop Fenwick.
“We’re just looking to see where everyone is at right now, so there’s not huge expectations but we still want to try and set a tone,” said Smith. “At the end of the day, we’re all just excited to be back out there competing and we’re just going to try to have as much fun as possible.”
