Hamden High Indoor Track Teams Set to Launch

After a series of workouts, some outdoors in cold weather, Hamden High’s dedicated track teams start their indoor season with the girls entering an event at Hillhouse. The boys have a similar event at Hillhouse this Wednesday 

The teams are excited about the upcoming season but challenged to match the recent success of both the indoor and outdoor teams. Last year’s boys indoor team won the distance medley relay and 4 x 800 meters event at the Nike national championship in Boston, recording the sixth fastest and 12th fastest times in U.S. history for the two events.    

“It’s going to be tough to repeat last year with the state championship and national title, but the kids are working hard so the sky’s the limit,” said boys' track coach Bryce Lindamood.

The girls aren’t far behind. “We had good success last year, we won our division and were competitive in the conference and the states and I think we’ll be stronger this year,” said girls' indoor coach Nils Leblang.    

Among the stars returning from last year’s boys' team are Kevin Tran, Pat Cyr and Blake Gatison who participated in the distance medley and 4 x 800 events.   

For the girls, distance runners Mara Lieberman, Carolyn Williams and Sarah Vaughan complement sprinters Erin Harpe, Claire Lawrence and jumper Megan Jordan.   

“We have a nice group of distance, sprint and jumps,” Leblang said.     

The key events for indoor track are hurdles, dashes, high jump, long jump, shot put and relays, Lindamood said. There are 300, 600 and 1000 meter individual races, a 4 x 800 meter relay and a sprint medley relay.    

For indoor track the teams compete in multi-school events, not against individual schools as they do during the outdoor season in the spring. But they still pursue conference championships, state and national titles.    

The biggest competition for the boys comes from Danbury, Amity, Staples and Hillhouse, Lindamood said. The girls will be challenged by Cheshire, Hand, Guilford and Glastonbury, which is the favorite for the state title, Lebland noted.      

The first events at Hillhouse and Yale are developmental meets with all 15 conference schools attending to get their teams warmed up for the indoor season. Invitationals and conference events follow before the season wraps up in February and March with SCC, CIAC, New England and Nike Indoor National championships.    

The Hamden teams will compete for all the titles with dedicated teams that “try to do the best they can to represent the town and the school,” Lindamood said.

“It’s not just how fast we run but the character, too. It takes a lot of character to go out in 20 degree weather and run intervals. But we believe in the plan. They all have goals. The kids are very in control of the team and I try to help them out with that.”