As the outdoors grow colder, many fall cross country runners shift gears to winter track, where the sprinters lace up their spikes for the first of two track and field seasons. The girls’ and boys’ teams race inside to escape the quickly approaching frost. The wind howls outside, and teammates and coaches alike use their skills to prepare for their upcoming season.
Last year for the 2024-2025 season, the Westford Academy Boys’ Indoor Track team placed 14th at the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Indoor Track Division 1 Championship, and the girls placed 12th out of 25 teams. Both teams are competing in Division II this year.
Westford Academy graduated two crucial athletes last year, Ryan Kyle and Vincent Buonacore.
Former senior and captain Ryan Kyle held the state record of 51.72 seconds for the 400 meter hurdles during the outdoor season, and Vincent Buonacore placed third in the boys’ 55 meter varsity finals at the MIAA Division 1 Indoor Track and Field Championship with a personal record of 6.55 seconds.
“For the boys I think it’s definitely going to be a bit of a rebuild this year, so just everyone on the team improving themselves and improving their PRs,” senior captain Hayden Macko said.
Boys’ head coach Philip Archambault agrees, naming the rebuild as one of his own objectives for the team.
“My goal is to re-establish all of our sprinters and distance runners as we’ve graduated a lot of top level ones over the last year or two,” Archambault said.
Track and field is a very diverse sport with multiple different types of events for specific categories. There are jumpers, hurdlers, throwers, and runners, all of which make up one singular team.
Westford Academy already has two D1 commits for cross country and track: senior captains Emily Wedlake and Abigail Hennessy.
Hennessy, a key member on the cross country and track teams for all four years has broken multiple records, but was unable to run for the indoor 2024-2025 season due to an injury.
There are specific goals in mind that the captains have for the freshman to prepare them for the season.
“My goals for the freshmen are just to make sure that everyone’s having fun and staying consistent and putting in the effort every day,” Hennessy said. “I know that indoor track can be hard because it’s freezing out or you don’t want to come to practice [all the time] during the holidays.”
Another goal of Hennessy’s would be to win divisionals as a team due to the change in division for WA.
Furthermore, senior captain Sabrina Berthold explained that some expectations the captains have set for the freshmen are to have a good attitude going into the season.
“It can be difficult coming into a new experience where people have done the sport before,” Berthold said. “Personally, I had never done track before high school. So a lot of people are trying something new which we’re really excited about.”
Runners from cross country usually switch to indoor track if they aren’t doing another winter sport, making the preseason atmosphere very focused as well.
According to Wedlake, because so many of the cross country athletes transition to indoor track, they already have that extra practice going into the winter season.
“One thing that’s really important to think about when we are talking about the preseason is that a lot of people in track start really early, even before the season,” Wedlake said. “I feel like that shows the hard-working atmosphere that we already have.”
Wedlake, with Hennessy, was also one of the cross country captains and is a highly valued runner on the team. Wedlake had a personal record of 5:01:29 for the 1 mile, and 10:48.24 for 3200 meters — which is approximately two miles — from last year.
In addition, the practice dynamic for indoor track is unusual because of how track and field is normally centered around being outside, but the team often stays inside due to the weather. Their practice starts at 2:30 and goes until 4:30, during which time the distance runners either run inside on the treadmills, or outside on the roads, much like cross country.
The sprinters can either run outside on the track or inside on mats that are put out. The sprinters and distance runners often use the hallways in the school to practice, while the throwers and jumpers are found in the main gym.
For indoor track, individuals are allowed to choose their event, but it may not always be the one that works best for them.
“We let them choose to start, but we sample them in all the different events because we never know who’s going to have what skill at what level,” Archambault said. “Sometimes you think you’re a distance person, and you end up being a sprinter, or you think you’re a thrower and you’re a jumper. We try them in everything and help them determine what is best.”
This season the team, despite being in a rebuilding phase, is hoping to do their best after such a successful group of athletes last year.
“We just hope to make sure that everyone tries to be happy with the results by the end of the season, whether that means PRs or increasing your stamina,” Berthold said. “Although it’s more of a personal sport, we try to come together as a team to improve our goals all together.”
