Boys Indoor Track Receives First Loss On The Season

West Springfield ended the Spartan’s eight meet winning streak on Sunday afternoon, defeating the team 49-46. 

The Spartans, however, won’t let this result tarnish their individual performances, highlighting the fact that eight different boys placed in the top five of their respective events.

With all eight boys being made up of upperclassmen, it’s clear that this year’s tenured group is motivated to win.

“Our team has really showed up this year,” Charlie Klatka, a junior runner, said. “We’re really dedicated and we want to win.”

The junior placed second in the two-mile run with a time of 10:55.10 and helped lead his relay team to a third place finish.

Right behind him in third place of the two-mile came junior Connor Knee, running in 10:57.35. Another third place contribution from the Spartans was earned by senior Ben Cangemi in the 300-meter dash. 

Cangemi, one of four seniors on the boys team, is proud of the effort his team puts into “working hard in practice everyday and spending time doing other things outside of running,” which he believes has “helped us the most.”

His fellow seniors, Gabe Allsop, Nick Bradley, and Josh Kirchner, placed second, fourth, and tenth respectively. 

Junior Nolan Moore is another impactful upperclassmen, competing in four events and placing top five in three of them. Alongside his impressive statistics come fellow juniors Dominick Gamelli and Shane Smith, earning three fourth place finishes combined.

Though this stacked Spartans squad has looked great so far this year, both Cangemi and Klatka believe there is still room for improvement.

“I’d say we need to work on the little things, the small mechanics that you don’t really notice when you’re running,” Cangemi said.

Klatka added details to his senior’s sentiment, stating that those small improvements may be “good technique, keeping your head up while you’re running, not looking at the ground, stuff like that.”

Klatka also mentioned that this year’s team has built a “new foundation,” part of which applies to how much team chemistry there is on and off the track.

“We’ve all been hanging out together outside of track,” Klatka said. “You get to know the guys on a different level, so it’s been pretty cool.”

Cangemi took the topic of his team’s chemistry to another level.

“This is probably the most chemistry I’ve ever seen in a team so far,” Cangemi said.

Cangemi, Klatka, and his team compete again this Sunday against Agawam and Longmeadow.