Of all the sports at Stone Bridge, winter track is regarded as one of the lesser-known sport because it only came to be here just four short years ago. When compared to other running sports like Spring Track and Cross Country, the environment is much different as the temperature often drops below 20 degrees. Although, the cold is not always as burdensome as you think, and a lot of runners at Stone Bridge are either trying to qualify for states and break school records in the sport.

Typically, for a high school track team, there are two groups of runners: distance and sprinters. The difference between the two groups is actually vast as they have different training routines every day at their practices. Sprinters tend to focus more on stretching and form as their races can be as short as 55 meters, while distance runners tend to focus more on maintaining a certain speed since their races are often as long as 3,200 meters or two miles. 

This season is different from other winter track seasons as COVID numbers have been going up exponentially, the sun is setting earlier and earlier, and meets are becoming more unpredictable thanks to some heavy snowfall in early Jan. Through all of that, winter track runners keep on going. 

“Even though this winter has been very cold, it still does not bother me much because it feels 10-20 degrees warmer when you are midway through a run.” junior James Gralton said. “And when practice or meets get cancelled because of snow I go meet up with friends and make time to go on a run and I really enjoy it.” 

Sprinters  are outnumbered by the distance runners especially in Winter track as most are training alone in preparation for Spring track and field. Lead sprinters at Stone Bridge include junior Ian Campbell who’s 300 meter best time is a whopping 37 seconds while senior Natalie Mial’s best time is 7 seconds for the 55 meter dash. 

Unlike sprinters, there is a  surplus of distance runners with a good amount of runners in almost every class. Some of the top distance runners this year include junior Annie Sullivan who qualified for states for the 1 mile running 5 minutes and 28 seconds.  Back in December, senior Alex Ryan broke the school record for the 1000 meter with 2 minutes and 40 seconds. 

“Overall this season has been pretty solid.” senior Alex Ryan said. “I got a school record and had some good races, I just have got to keep working towards states. My only goal is to win a state championship for Stone Bridge”.