Led by Captains Mide Babatunde ’09 and Deidra Willis ’09, newcomers and seasoned runners alike are looking forward to a strong 2009 season for Indoor Track. Babatunde has been on the track team for, as he says, “four glorious years. Also known as ‘Not long enough.’” He says that indoor track “is a sport that I have loved since freshman year.” His commitment to the sport will be an example to new runners. Several older runners to the sport share this commitment. Conrad Bastable ’09, Eddie Zhang ’09 and Michael Ma ’10 prepared for the track season all fall with Babatunde. He said, “Their love for the sport is incredibly big… Along with me, these guys came out every day Fall Term to run some pretty tough speed workouts. I know their work is definitely going to pay off this season.” All 11 Seniors on the team are looking forward to personal improvement and exciting meets. Willis, Babatunde, Bastable, Zhang, Sophie Shimer ’09, John Grunbeck ’09, Kwon-Yong Jin ’09, Anthony Morlani ’09, Peter Ly ’09 and Malin Adams ’09 will all be leaders this year. The main goal this season is for every runner to improve. Coach Corbin Lang said, “If you a run a season’s best at your first meet, then there’s something wrong.” All of the runners are internally motivated to beat their personal records, but Coach Lang has also given them an extra incentive; when runners break their previous season best, they will earn points that go toward earning a Varsity letter. The first “race” of the season is a time trial this week; runners will set their first time for the season, and this will be their goal to beat in the first real competition in late January. The most exciting among this season’s meets include the Andover-Exeter meet at the end of the season and two invitational meets at Harvard for the more experienced runners. Babatunde said about the Harvard meet, “It’s a fun trip over and it’s interesting to see how a lot of our runners compare to those on college teams. We beat a lot of them!” For all runners, the most important thing is to help the team succeed. Babatunde added, “Hopefully the work that Deidra and I put in will make the track program stronger for this season and the rest to come.” All runners look forward to a good season and hope to improve not only their own times, but also the times of the team as a whole.
