After a successful season last year Woodland’s Track Team is once again off to a great start. They kicked off their season with wins over technical schools, Kaynor and Bullard Havens.  Although the team did well in its first meet of the season, it still has a lot of work to do.

“We graduated a lot of spots, particularly some field events, hurdles, and mid-distance,” said Boys’ Track Coach Tim Shea. “Those are some of the areas of concern to take care of now.”

Along with Girls’ Track Coach Jeff Lownds, Shea has set high, but certainly not unattainable, goals.

“Our goal is to win the division, win the league, place one person in every event at the states meet, and to place in the top five in our class,” said Shea. “I think those are pretty lofty goals, but I think they’re ones that the [team] wants to hit.

With a team of more than 100 people, each athlete is expected to work hard in order to contribute to the team’s success.

“It’s challenging with the amount of kids we have,” said Shea. “This is clearly the largest group we’ve ever had, and it’s forcing me–in a good way–to pay a bigger attention to detail and to be on task a lot more. Hopefully the kids will get the most out of it.”

Although the team has graduated some of its top athletes, Shea has faith in upcoming members of his team.

“I think that the guys have learned over the years that they will step into the next place—the next rung on the ladder,” said Shea. “It’s their time now.”

This past winter has been a tough one for winter sports teams. Region 16 had six snow days alone, in January. Those snow days were scrambled throughout January and messed up practices.
The Woodland Boys and Girls Indoor Track Team especially were affected by this weather.
“If it’s above 32 degrees, we’re outside,” Stated, Tim Shea.
Because of the amount of snow outside, the team was forced to stay indoors.
Woodland isn’t a very big building for practicing indoor track with 60 athletes. They meet in different places throughout their practices every day. Shea, known as, Coach Shea stated, “they’d rather have head colds than shin splints.”
These conditions haven’t stopped the athletes from working hard during their very rigorous practices.
When the team isn’t practicing, they are competing. The Indoor Track Team could not reschedule the three meets they lost this season due to the snow blizzards upper New England has received.
Indoor Track meets are very difficult to reschedule. “Track isn’t like other sports that can reschedule games. Most facilities are booked solid throughout the winter,” stated Shea.
By losing the ability to compete at those meets, the athletes have trained harder during practice to gain their track time even if it hurts their shins.
The Girls competed at states this past Thursday, February 10th. The Boys are scheduled to compete at states this Saturday, February 12th.
No matter the loss of the Boys and Girls Indoor Track Teams practices and meets, “they will be ready for states,” Stated Shea.

Photo Credit: http://www.cabq.gov/recreation/indoortrack.html

In a field jam-packed with talent, the Woodland Hawks had five athletes qualify for the CIAC State Open Meet, including their 4×800 Meter Relay team. Each athlete qualified based on their performance at the Class-M State meet.

Brandon Fowler participated in both the 110 meter and 300 meter hurdles. Although he was unable to place in the top 8 for the 110 meter, Fowler finished second in the 300 meter with a time of 39.65 seconds, earning 8 points for Woodland. Fowler’s performance also earned him a spot in the New England track meet.

The Hawks finished the day 29th in the field with 10 points. Woodland was third amongst NVL teams at the meet with Derby finishing 9^th with 20 points and Seymour finishing 20^th with 13 points. Notre Dame of West Haven won the meet with a total of 36 points.

Dan Park also did well, finishing 7^th in the triple jump event, earning Woodland 2 points in the process. Sophomore Scott Lang finished 16^th in the javelin throw and junior Kyle Cranney finished 16^th as well in the 1600 meter run.

Brittany Battis represented Woodland in the pole vault event, setting a personal record of 10 feet as she tied for 10th place.

Woodland’s 4×800 meter relay team of Kyle Cranney, Adam Baz, Tyler Murphy, and Eric Dietz finished 20^th with a time of 8:26.50.

Woodland as a whole finished the season well. As the competition increasingly got better, the Hawks consistently performed well.

Although Brandon Fowler has one more meet to participate in, the season is over for the rest of the Hawks. Woodland will be loosing a lot of key seniors next season, but the expectations will still be set high.

Photo Credit: http://www.arcola.k12.il.us/HS/Sports/Track/TrackHomePage_files/image001.jpg

    Many people think that track is one of the safe sports where there is a slim chance of getting seriously hurt, but that is not entirely true.

     The throwing events—discus, javelin, and shot put—are all events in a track meet. At one point, all of these items were used as weapons.

   The discus emanated from the Australian boomerang, which was a weapon used by the Aboriginals to hunt animals. They soon realized that the animals were too quick and could easily avoid the boomerang. Thus, a faster weapon was needed.

     The Aboriginals carved out round pieces of hard wood, which they called the discus. It is named the discus because of the noise it made while flying through the air. The discus soon evolved into a thick metal Frisbee, used in ancient times to kill people.

     Eric Moraniec, a former Woodland discus thrower, believes the discus is a dangerous object that could cause severe injury, as it can be thrown up to 200 feet by a high school athlete.

“The discus is extremely deadly and people can be seriously hurt if it hits them,” Moraniec said.  Moraniec was an All-Naugatuck Valley League discus thrower in 2005 and had a few accidents in his time. He once threw a disk that went flying and hit a girl who was throwing a javelin all the way on the other side of the field.

    A discus also hit Woodland senior Jim Hart in the inner thigh close to groin. “It was painful,” Hart said, stating the obvious.

     The discus is not the only part of track that can be dangerous, one that also carries a risk of serious injury is the javelin. The javelin can be thrown in excess of 190 feet by an elite high school athlete.

     According to eHow.com, early javelins are thought to have been used as weapons. The javelin was a pole with a shaft that was usually wood and had a sharp tip. As civilizations developed, they started to throw the javelin not only for hunting but for sport and combat.

     The final and one of the relatively unsafest throwing events in track is the shot put. The shot put is a 12-pound cannonball. The first known events of modern shot put most likely took place in the Middle Ages, when soldiers held competitions in which they hurled cannon balls.

      Getting injured by a flying shot is rare. One such instance was when high school track athlete Patrick Whalen put the shot and struck official Paul Suzuki as he was strolling across the field. Suzuki died the day after from his injuries.

     These examples of throwing-related injuries just go to show that a heightened sense of awareness is important when at a track meet.

Photo Credit: http://www.beijingolympicsfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/img214571497.jpg

On Tuesday, April 13th, the Woodland Girls Track and Field team defeated Wilby(124-22) and North Branford(86-64).

Events that Woodland won:

4×100: (Watford, Dumond, Patrick, DeBiase) 54.5

1600: Steinfeld 5:44

800: Albright 2:36

3200: Kiley 12:46

4×400: (Battis, Dumond, Melville, Albright) 4:25

Long Jump: Riley 15-2.5

High Jump: Albright 4-8

Triple Jump: Riley 31-4.5

Pole Vault: Battis 8-0

Javelin: Deegan 81-7

Discus: Poryanda 62-2

Photo Credit: http://www.google.it/imgres?imgurl=http://www.athenryac.com/files/imagecache/mainImage/cckImages/Track_and_Shoes.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.athenryac.com/allireland-track-and-field-schools-championships-tv&usg=__thU4xPYro_B7k9APEr3ZWMkBNU0=&h=346&w=520&sz=27&hl=it&start=22&itbs=1&tbnid=cKWtwgmJghBX_M:&tbnh=87&tbnw=131&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dtrack%2Band%2Bfield%26start%3D21%26hl%3Dit%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26tbs%3Disch:1

For the first meet of the season, the Hawks defeated Seymour (90.5-59.5), Derby (110-40) and Sacred Heart (132-18).

Events that the Black and Gold captured:

4×800: (Cranney, Dietz, Baz,  Murphy) 9:07

4×100: (Williams, Park, Savvidou, Fowler) 43.8

110H: Fowler 15.4

100: Savvidou 10.8

1600: Murphy 4:45

400: Savvidou 52.2

300IH: Fowler 41.1

800: Murphy 2:16

200: Park 22.6

4×400: (Savvidou, Plaskon, Murphy, Fowler) 3:38

Triple Jump: Park 44 1.25

Photo Credit: http://www.athenryac.com/files/imagecache/mainImage/cckImages/Track_and_Shoes.jpg

With the successful indoor track season in the wraps, runners are getting ready for the outdoor track season now.

For each season, the coaches and the runners set high goals to achieve and after last season’s triumphs, the outlook is bright for this season of outdoor track.

“You have to set high goals in order to be in a position to obtain them,” stated coach Tim Shea.

Plans for the future include winning the NVLs, moving on to states and hopefully making it to the state open.

There is a whole roster of talent that should push the outdoor division above and beyond.

Seniors like Tyler Murphy, Chris Savvidou, Dan Park, Kate Trauger, and Brittany Albright are just few among the many who will help advance the team.

“There really is too many to name,” said Shea, regarding other successful members of the team.

The potential for this season’s outdoor track success is promising.