The track and field season stretches through both winter and spring seasons, and boys track and field has a lot of time to train and improve their skills. The season officially started on Jan. 17, and both athletes and coaches were looking forward to the season beginning, assistant coach Joe Pontrelli said. 

“The athletes just want to learn and improve throughout the season, and I am trying to learn and improve as a coach,” Pontrelli said. 

There are always new athletes who come in each season, and it is exciting for coaches to get to know all of the new runners, as well as seeing the seniors step into leadership roles, Pontrelli said. 

“It is always tough to lose the leadership provided by the previous year of seniors, so hopefully new seniors can step in and fill the leadership roles,” Pontrelli said. 

The boys were very excited to be able to get back into season, and run and jump again, Finn Murray ‘23 said. Murray competes in the 4×4 meter relay, and the high jump. 

“It is exciting to get back with the guys on the team, I [hadn’t] seen many of them for a while before the season started so it [is] good to run together,” he said.  

Most of the seniors on the team are friends and have been running track together since their freshman year. The boys are hopeful for a successful indoor and outdoor season and performance at championship meets, Will DiSessa ‘23 said. Disessa competes in triple jump, and short sprints. 

“The guys are great, and I really like the whole team atmosphere,” DiSessa said. “As a team we definitely want to get a Sectional win, because we tied last year and we want to qualify for multiple events at State.”

The team wants to be able to improve from their performance last regular season and from their performance at the State meet, Murray said. 

“We had a few guys go to State last year, but we didn’t place for many points,” Murray said. “The team last year was very junior-ran, and many people from last year have definitely improved. There is a lot of potential for the team to do well this year.”

Different coaches of the team focus on different events and groups of athletes. All of the coaches try to motivate the team, and lead them through a successful season, Pontrelli said.

“I am hoping that we can make it through the season healthy and then I feel if we can stay healthy, we will have a very successful championship season,” Pontrelli said.

As the indoor season progresses, the athletes are training and getting ready for the outdoor season in early April, Murray said. Indoor season ends with the conference meet of all teams in the West Suburban Conference Silver, but once outdoor seasons starts the athletes are moving towards Sectionals, and potentially State. 

The first home meet of the season is on Feb. 16 at 5 p.m. in the SC fieldhouse.