The Bishop Noll track team begins outdoor season.

Hailey Wojtaszek, Staff Reporter

The Bishop Noll track and field team started their indoor season on Tuesday, March 1 and ended on March 10. Their newest focus is outdoor season, which lasts until May.

With indoor season having come to a close, coach Eric Klocek used it as an opportunity to gather information and data about each athlete. 

“My goal of indoor season with all of our new faces joining the program on both the boys and girls sides was to gather as much information through the results of their events and then work towards teaching them in practice through various workouts and drills how we can improve our distances and times,” he said.

When it comes to athleticism in each season, indoor season takes more stamina on runners. The size of the indoor track is smaller, so each athlete has to run an additional 40 meters in every event. It is also a tighter space, making it harder to find balance with all the curves of the track. While, on the outdoor track, there is more space for the athletes to work with and helps to improve their times.

The team started off with 57 athletes for indoor season and the goal is that once outdoor season starts, the team will finish off with a total of 70 athletes in the program. Out of all the team, the athletes showing the most promise this season are seniors, Antoine Lewis, Andrian Hernandez, and Kayode Olaoye, juniors Precious Knight, Maria Carbajal, and Matthew Klocek, and sophomores Jalyssia Crawford, Frida Gonzalez, Alessandra Lopez, and Grace Buksa.

This is Klocek’s sixth year coaching for Bishop Noll and with all his experience he is confident that the team will make it past sectionals this year. 

“I am very confident that we can qualify numerous student athletes out of our sectional and represent Bishop Noll at the regional championship meet for both boys and girls programs.”

The team’s first outdoor meet of the season took place Tuesday, April 5 at 5pm at Calumet. And their next is Monday, April 8 at Lake Station.