Groton indoor track enjoys record-breaking season

The Groton indoor track and field team is one of the smaller teams in the section with just eight athletes making up the roster. But where they lack in size, they more than make up for in sheer talent.

Through the first five meets of the season, the Red Hawks have had multiple individual winners and have broken two school records. All this success has come under a new head coach, but one who’s extremely well-known in the local running scene. Scott Weeks, who also coaches the cross country and outdoor track teams, takes over from Dennis Rhoads when he retired after leading the program for well over 30 years. Weeks explained his decision to add another team to his coaching arsenal.

“I have three seniors who I really felt like deserved a solid season, and so I decided I’d do it to try to make sure that they have a good season,” Weeks said. “With Dennis here, there was always a consistency through the program from cross country through outdoor track. I also want to maintain that consistency from that same sort of coaching message that we pass on to kids… I was also an athlete in the program, so I really want to make sure that the program stays high-quality and the kids who are interested in doing it have some good opportunities and good coaching. Hopefully, I’m helping provide that for them.”

The two milestones reached so far came in the relay events. In their first meet of the season at the Finger Lakes Invitational, the Red Hawks broke a 17-year school record in the 4×200-meter boys relay with the team of brothers Drew and Ross Bush, Carter Naginey, and Derran Morris. One week later at the Winter Classic, the quartet was at it again, breaking the program mark in the boys sprint medley set back in 2008. Morris is the newest member of the Red Hawks, and the freshman has shown he was the missing piece to the puzzle to help the relay teams make history.

“He was an eighth-grade dynamo last year in modified outdoor track, so we knew that we needed that fourth sprinter element on these relays,” Weeks said. “This freshman kid is really talented and highly competitive, and we knew that he would fill in that fourth person gap that we had.”

Another emerging young talent on the Red Hawks is Ross Bush. The sophomore’s breakout meet also came at the Winter Classic, where he won the 600-meter run and the long jump while setting personal records in both events. Weeks praised Bush’s eagerness to learn and improve his own craft.

“This kid will do anything I suggest to him,” Weeks said. “I always tell them on hard workout days to make sure you have something to eat right after practice, because it’s real important to be consuming some food right after a hard session. This is a kid who is always eating something immediately [when] practice ends. He’s not only super talented, but he’s willing to take veteran advice. Everything you give him, he eats it right up. I think you’re gonna see something special with him not just this season, but over the next couple seasons. You’re gonna see his name a lot.”

Carter Naginey is one of the veteran talents on the Red Hawks as a senior. He too has found individual success this season, namely winning the 1,600-meter run at the Snowman Invitational. Along with fellow senior Drew Bush, their leadership is on full display when collaborating with the younger Bush brother.

“Those guys are putting in extra time outside of practice that I don’t oftentimes see, and they’re really good for each other,” Weeks said. “If they didn’t have each other, that level of motivation to do the extra stuff outside of practice and that dynamic wouldn’t be there as much. They’re the kind of mentality that coaches just love to work with. They’ll listen. Anything you say, they’ll do. Any workout you have, they’ll do. They’ll come to you for advice all the time, whether it’s racing advice, training advice, whatever. They want to know. They eat it right up.”

As for the other four athletes on the team, Andrew Saam is the third senior who specializes in the 800-meter run and has been praised by Weeks for his terrific work ethic. Wesley Sturmer is the other freshman who was recruited by Morris despite not doing any sports previously. David Shea is a junior who’s the only thrower on the team and has put up solid performances in the shot put.

Rounding out the Red Hawks is the lone girl on the team, Lena Brehm. The junior is looking to surpass the school record of 71 seconds in the 400-meter run. She actually ran a faster time in that event during the outdoor season last spring. Groton could very well be on track for more records broken in the second half of the season.