The boys outdoor track team is larger and more determined than ever before. With 50 members ready to lace up their track spikes and don Bromfield blue this spring season, the team hopes to brush shoulders with some of the top teams in the league.
The Trojans return without three of their strongest competitors, hurdler Connor Garrison, javelin thrower Thanny Alexander, and distance runner Alex Calderwood. Nonetheless, Bromfield is ready to take home a trophy at the Division C league meet after placing fourth in 2008. Hudson will prove to be Bromfield’s greatest competition.
“Our team is at least the same as it was last year, if not better,” says senior Ben Waldman. “We’re all one year stronger and we’ve brought in two great, young distance runners, Nick Kronauer and Ellis Toll, a promising hurdler and sprinter in Sam Aney, and an all-around athlete in Jair Crookshank.”
The team, coached by Dave Boisvert, will be led by seniors Kevin Molinaro, Sam Dorward, Nick Cleary, Brendan Chen, and Waldman. The upperclassmen will step up to guide the 26 middle school students who have recently joined the team.
“We’re trying to prepare ourselves for next year, when a lot of our upperclassmen will have graduated,” Waldman says. “We have a lot of younger kids this year, and we will hopefully leave our team in their energetic hands. We’re just trying to figure out where everyone will fit.”
Molinaro came out of his first indoor track season this past winter as the team’s leading point scorer. He hopes to continue this trend by taking his success outdoors. He should rake in points for the team in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, javelin throw, and long jump.
Cleary holds the Bromfield high jump record, a mark he hopes to outdo in coming weeks. The 400-meter hurdle record is also a near lock for the senior hurdler, as this season marks the first time the event will be run in high school track.
“Since it is my senior year, and the culmination of my high school athletic career, I hope to step up as the lead hurdler and high jumper,” says Cleary. “Connor Garrison used to be the best hurdler, and he left a pretty big gap for me to try to fill.”
Waldman has his eye on the 400-meter record of 51.7 seconds. He will also anchor the 4×800-meter relay team. Dorward, Kronauer, and Chen will join Waldman in an attempt to qualify for the state championship.
The team will count on Dorward and Kronauer to score points in the 800-meter and one-mile runs, and Chen in the shorter events. Junior Max Flaton returns as the team’s top two-mile runner. After clocking a strong 10:19 at the State Class Indoor Track Championship this past winter, Flaton hopes to break the 10:15 barrier.
“I’m pretty sure I’ll be racing in Districts, a slight possibility of racing in District-All Class,” says Flaton, “and if God is behind me pushing or the Devil chasing me will I make it to States.”
