The Staples girls’ indoor track team participated in their first virtual FCIAC meet competing against Darien, Wilton, Ridgefield, Greenwich, Brien McMahon and Fairfield Ludlowe on Saturday, Feb. 27. While the official overall team scores weren’t announced, the team started off the season ambitiously with a number of competitive personal records and seed times.
The team started off with Tatum Havemann’s ’22 win in the 600-meter race with a time of 1:41:52. Other standout performances included Francine Stevens’ ’23 personal record in the 50-meter dash with a time of 6:99, the team’s domination of the 300-meter race with Staples winning the first to ninth places, and Josie Dolan ’22’s second-place finish in the 1600 meters with a time of 5:38:79.
“I am pretty pleased with the results of the meet and I am super grateful that we had the opportunity to hold a meet even if we weren’t able to have outside competition,” Dolan said.
For the final race, the team ran three different 4×240 relay teams with Emma Nordberg ’22, Sophie Hill ’24, Sami Dewitt ’23 and Francine Stevens ’23 leading the race.
“I think it went pretty well overall,” Nordberg said.“Everybody runs their own race and stuff so it’s different for each person but as a whole, I think it was a good meet.”
During the meet, the competitors and coaches were asked to abide by a mask mandate which made longer events like Dolan’s 1600 meter race more challenging.
“During the meet, all competitors and athletes had to wear masks at all times which made breathing during the races much more difficult, especially in an indoor environment,” Dolan said.
The team looks ahead for their first upcoming dual meet of the season with excitement.
“I know we’re having a meet with Danbury in the future,” Nordberg said, “[and] I’m just looking forward to just having other chances to compete.”
The team’s next meet is set for Saturday, March 6 at the Staples High School fieldhouse at 9 a.m.