The season has been going incredibly well for the UHSSE Outdoor Track team. We’ve had five meets so far, and many of our athletes have gotten new personal records and qualified for conference. This Tuesday, we have an invitational meet at South Windsor High School, and our runners are excited to compete against more schools. This year we have two championship meets, one for our CRAL league and another for all of the high schools in Hartford. With more meets and invitationals this season, we are excited to see how our runners improve and how this season transpires.
All of our runners have profound goals for this season that they are training their hardest to achieve. Many of our newer athletes are working to qualify for conference and to help our team win championships. “My goal for you guys is to hopefully win conferences again. Just improve and just feel like a strong culture of people pushing each other and helping out,” said Coach Matthew Walker. It’s remarkable to see athletes not only achieving their goals but wanting to continue to grow and pursue this passion they’ve found in running. Other athletes are working towards qualifying for states and getting to compete with so many more runners and schools. “My goal for this season is to make it to states for both the mile and the 800m as well as to break the school record for the 3200m. I love beating my old times and getting better day by day,” said Catherine Hockenhull ‘25.
Runners, jumpers, and throwers each have their own motivations, and everyone has a different reason for continuing to show up every day and pursue this sport. Whether they were dragged to practice by a friend or have a true love for running, we all show up and push ourselves to work hard. “I stay motivated during hard workouts by remembering what all this training is for: a silly, little t-shirt with my name on the back. But in all seriousness, I just love beating my old times and proving that I can get better with each day and each race,” said Hockenhull. After a while, you can forget why you first signed up for track, but in time all of our reasons blend together because we all are working to beat our old times. All of us want to be better than we were during the last meet, or the last week, or even yesterday. It’s continuously proving ourselves wrong that makes running so rewarding.
Track binds all of us together, and it’s great finding new friends and connections in that. “My favorite thing is the friends you make while running. Nobody is ever mad if you have a good race, so almost every runner is open to being friends,” said Emmet Spaeth ‘25. We can push each other in workouts and motivate each other during our meets. When you’re running, it’s exalting to have your teammates cheering you so loud that it carries you, and you don’t even notice who isn’t there. On the other hand, it’s incredible to get to cheer your teammates on and see their faces light up when they get a new personal record. “If you like the sport, running is a joy no matter what speed you’re doing it,” said Spaeth.
Our team still has five meets left this season, and we are looking forward to competing at championships and some of our athletes going on to compete at States.
