At 65, track and field roster is strong

04/23/08
By Chris Hrenko
Email this story to a friend

Harwood track and field got off to strong start last Wednesday with a second place finish in its opening meet against Division I teams Champlain Valley Union and Spaulding (see Harwood roundup).

A perennial Division II power, the Harwood boys were the state runner-up last year, while the girls finished third.

The teams should be back in the hunt again this year.

“It was very respectable for us considering that we’d only been on our track twice because of the conditions,” coach Taggert Haslam said of the season’s first meet. “CVU is a big Division I team and Spaulding is also Division I, so we’re very proud of what we did there.”

Haslam, who has been coaching Harwood track for 18 years, is entering his second year as head coach. He acknowledged the benefit of having a four-person coaching staff this year, especially with a team that’s 65 students strong.

“We’ve been in the top five in the state for probably a dozen years or so, and I really give that to the coaching staff,” he said. “We’ve got a very talented coaching staff that really complements each other. We’re all on the same page, and I think we’ve really attracted some great student-athletes over at Harwood.

“I think we’re going to continue to be strong. We’ve got some depth coming in from the younger classes, so hopefully that will continue on in the years to come.”

There is a lot more to coaching track than running athletes through the same set of workouts day-in and day-out. Coaches must taper and build, weighing the needs of individual athletes as well as those of the team, making sure athletes are rested for individual meets, but still trying to build up toward the big events later in the season.

“Not only do we target what we want to accomplish as a group, but as coaches we work with the individual strengths,” Haslam said.

Working with Harwood runners depends mostly on the meet schedule, Haslam said.

“You don’t want to be working real hard two days out from a meet, and you do something different the day before a meet. Training is geared toward the schedule, the individual goals of the athletes, and of the group,” he said.

In Wednesday’s meet at Champlain Valley, the girls won all three throwing events, with returning state champion Kelly Foster winning javelin and discus, and Kayla Dillon winning shot put.

“We go pretty deep in the throws,” said Haslam. “We’ve got sophomores who are also scoring points for us. We only lost one senior last year.”

In fact, there are only 12 seniors on the track team. That leaves 24 juniors, 18 sophomores, and 11 freshmen.

With its athletes spread across different classes, Haslam expects the team to do well this season.

“Ally Bataille and Paige Cleary are our top sprinters on the girls side, and they did very well for us at CVU. For distance, we have the two sisters, Anne and Jillian Mendes, who will be strong for us. We have another girl coming up, Sophie Lisaius, who did a very good time in the 1,500 (meters), so we’re looking forward to seeing her perform this year.”

For the boys, Zach Pfister, another returning state champion, won both the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles. Joe Simoes won the discus and the javelin.