The excitement is building for WA’s track and field athletes who are gearing up for their 2025 spring season. Entering this season, the team is a combination of new talent, veteran runners, and high competition, with all of these athletes sharing a common goal: winning the DCL Championship.
Several athletes who have just wrapped up their successful winter track and field season, are running this spring as well. Due to the back-to-back sports seasons, the spring track runners who are transitioning from their winter seasons have already created strong bonds with many of their teammates.
“The team dynamic is great this year,” senior captain Nadia Swepson said. “We have a lot of girls who do winter track who are doing spring track so we are pretty familiar with each other. We also have a lot of great returners coming back for [another] spring [season].”
Swepson is looking forward to the upcoming season and hopes to embrace every experience, as this is her final season as a high school track athlete. This winter, Swepson was able to break her personal record (PR) in the 55 meter dash, and she aspires to continue improving as a runner during the spring.
“My personal goal [for this spring] is just to enjoy my final season of track but it’s always in the back of my mind to try to PR in my events,” Swepson said.
On the boys’ side of the team, at the end of the winter track season, senior captain Vinny Buonacore broke the WA school record for the 300-meter race with a time of 35.8 seconds. This spring he aspires to expand on this legacy.
“[This winter] I placed top 3 in the division and DCL championship in the 55 meter and also placed in the 300 m in both championships,” Buonacore said. “This correlates to spring because I also want to place top 3 in these championships for both my events.”
The girls’ and boys’ teams each have nine captains who take their leadership positions seriously and strive for a successful season. The spring track team holds a lot of athletes, so several captains are required because events are split into sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers, pole vaulters, distance runners, and throwers.
The girls’ captains include seniors Ali Pantoja, Audrey Smagula, Nadia Swepson, Ashley Vinith, Sydney Weiss, Lexi Nolan, Leah Bordenca, Katie Hall, and Leoria Dantas. Additionally, the boys’ captains consist of seniors Ryan Kyle, Nick Berthold, Soorya Govarthanaraj, Dilan O’Hearn, Diego Navas, Jack Graffeo, Gavin Guo, Vinny Buonacore, and Shlok Gupta.
“I’m going to work as hard as I can to set a good example for everyone else and I’m gonna push my teammates to their limits so they can improve,” Buonacore said.
The track and field head coaches are Philip Archambault for the boys’ team and Ashley Smith for the girls’ team. Assistant coaches Paul Hajjar and William Meuse also work with athletes in their individual events and have been key factors in the team’s success over the last few years. All of the coaches put in several hours a week to mentor these high school athletes, building them to become the best competitors they can be.
“A coach who has helped me a lot is Coach Archambault,” Swepson said. “He reassures me that I am still a good runner regardless of my injuries and to have that support of someone who still believes in you regardless of circumstances truly is great.”
WA Track and Field’s first meet will be held at WA on Wednesday, April 2. Between now and then, the athletes will have practices six days a week where their focus will be alternating between running drills and cardiovascular exercise along with gaining strength through lifting. This season, winning DCL’s and the potential of taking home a state title are realistic goals due to the team’s passionate coaches and hard working athletes.
“Last year we won DCL’s but we got second overall in States, so a big goal for this team this year is to win both,” Swepson said. “I think we could win both, [because] we have great and strong runners in a lot of events that could help us win both this year.”
