Track and field once again thrive and conquer

The 2017 St. Martin’s Episcopal School track and field team proves to be a force to be reckoned with, as numerous events were won across the board.

“We recently won a St. Martin’s Invitational meet,” said Sophomore Bennett Kahn. “The guys

got first place, and the girls got second – both overall. Our 4x400 meter team had a very strong performance. We won the race by 40 seconds in the last event of the night.”

The team’s success is largely due to the Head Boys and Girls Track and Field Coach Warren Lind, according to Kahn.

“He coaches the distance runners, and even though he’s not technically the coach of the sprinters and jumpers and throwers, he’s still always down there making sure they’re doing the right thing,” Kahn said. “He is just so happy when we succeed and do our best.”

The coaching method is considered old school. Lind expects all of his athletes to make a commitment and to come to practice, and it seems to pay off.

“I think I’ve had success, and my athletes have had success,” Lind said. “Antonio Imbornone (’16) last year was second in the state in the 1600-meter run and first in the 3200-meter run. We had a girls 4x400 meter relay qualify for state last year, and I saw them improve drastically.”

Regardless of the success of the program, coaching track proves to be hectic at times.

“Being in charge of the track program is like trying to do a three-ring circus,” Lind said. “Some people are doing jumps over here, runners there, throwing somewhere else, so there are a lot more pieces to the puzzle.”

There is a variety of talents on the St. Martin’s

track and field team, partially due to cross- country runners continuing to run during the offseason for track.

“We have a lot of distance runners, and we have a lot of kids doing a lot of different events, so it makes for a good mix,” Kahn said.

The field events have been strong this year as well. The only setback the team has had is in numbers, according to Lind.

“It’s very difficult for us to cover all of the events,” Lind said.

Regardless of the lack of numbers, the team has succeeded in their spring season.

“We have a lot of different kids from a lot of different grades, and there are lots of different types of people,” Kahn said. “I think that victory (in the invitational meet) really has helped us to show how good of a team we are, even though we are small in numbers.”