The Keene State Track & Field team made its mark in the indoor season by breaking several school records and even deploying athletes to the level of national competition. The team is now moving into the spring outdoor season and looking to continue the indoor success along with a few other season goals.
The outdoor and indoor seasons are nearly the same, as they share the same athletes who are competing in some of the same events. There are even some long-distance runners who have been competing since the cross country season in the fall. Head Coach Dan Roark said that combining the indoor and outdoor seasons helps athletes stay in shape to continue competing into the spring.
“The way we view it is that it’s one big season. Half the season you have a roof over your head and you run on a 200-meter track, and the other half you are running on a 400-meter track outside. So training-wise and fitness-wise we are in excellent shape and we transition that to have a great team feeling,” Roark said.
An easy transition into the outdoor season was made by junior runner Kyle Thomas, who had broken a school record during the indoor season in the 60-meter dash. The junior began the outdoor season hot in the first meet by breaking another school record in the 100-meter event at a meet in Atlanta. Thomas did not end the indoor season as he would have liked and said that this broken record to start the outdoor season is just what was needed.
“The second half of the indoor season was a lot harder than I expected. I truly wanted to go out there and recover from my downs from the indoor season and just compete,” Thomas said. “That’s been the main focus of what the coaches have said to us, to just go out and compete. It means a lot to me because it’s kind of like a bounce back from the downs I had in the indoor season.”
The beginning of the outdoor season means an opening for throwers who were not able to compete indoors. There are some events, such as discus and javelin, that are not able to take place indoors, and junior Eden Damis said he believes those athletes will shine with their opportunity in the spring.
“Our throwers have more events available, like javelin and hammer. It would give them an opportunity to shine a little bit more. Everyone overall will improve with warmer weather being able to go outside for practice, which will translate better for in-meet performance,” Damis said.
Eventually, when the transition over to the outdoor season is complete, the team can begin to focus on what the end of the season will look like. Junior thrower Eric Carlo expressed goals that differ from performance on meet days and hopes to cement himself as a leader on the team.
“Making sure everyone is on the same page whether it’s what we are doing for practice or when we are practicing, and doing the practices as a team and not as individuals. Outside of practice, just saying ‘Hi’ to people on the team and making them feel like they are a part of a team,” Carlo said.
The junior also commented on goals that revolve around production and competition, saying, “I do want to improve on my decathlon score and my other events in general, try to work towards winning the LEC [Little East Conference] or even DIII nationals and those big goals.”
The LEC is a goal that the entire team has in their sights, and Damis commented on that goal of winning the conference at the end of the season.
“As a team, we always want to get as many athletes to LECs and beyond as we can, whether that’s individual events or relays. One key word our coach has stressed to us is just to compete. You are not going to go out every meet and jump, throw or run your best mark; as long as you go out and try your best to compete, that’s all that matters,” Damis said.
Competing in the LEC can be tough because of the caliber of the teams within the conference, which makes winning the conference that much harder. The indoor track season saw a close race from all LEC teams to win the conference, and the outdoor season may be similar. Assistant Coach Bill Edson said this KSC Outdoor Track & Field is different from others, and that difference can give them a boost in achieving their goals within the conference.
“This is probably the most full team Keene State has ever had and we are really versatile right now. We just want to add to that versatility that makes us deeper in the next year or two. That’s what’s going to make the difference in pushing us from top five into top two,” Edson said.
The outdoor track team has competed in three events in the 2025 campaign and have many more to go. They will continue that sentiment of just competing with hopes to compete for the conference title.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
