On February 2nd, the Morgan Indoor Track and Field team competed in the Shoreline Conference finals. Eleven athletes competed across several events including the 55-meter dash, 300-meter, 600-meter, 1600-meter, high jump, long jump, and 4×200 relay. Qualifying athletes span across three grades, with seniors Julia White and Jack Bousquet, juniors Gabi Navarra, Rachel Spaziano, Natalie Estabrook, Michael Derenzo, Michael Fusco, Aidan Campion, Kaleb Richardson, and Mark Rodriguez, and sophomore Owen Lombardi.
Results from the girl’s events were impressive, with Captain Julia White coming in 3rd in the 300 m, posting 46.25 seconds. Julia also came in 6th in the 55-meter Dash, yielding a time of 8.12 seconds. Rachel Spaziano came 9th in the 55-meter Dash, with 8.38, and 8th in the 300 m, with 49.27. Natalie Estabrook finished 8th in the 1600 m, at 6:13.78. Gabi Navarra tied for 9th place in the high jump, posting a season-best of 4 meters. This was increasingly impressive considering Gabi has only competed this event twice outside of practice.
Several members of the boy’s team also did well. Michael Derenzo came 8th in the 55-Meter Dash, with 7.32 seconds. Captain Michael Fusco finished 4th in the 300 m, posting a PR of 37.76. Owen Lombardi came 22nd in the 1600, with a PR of 5:25.92. The Mens 4×200 m Relay secured their qualification for states with a time of 1:41:40, coming in 7th.

This season, the Morgan Indoor Track and Field team struggled to find coaching. For several past seasons, Jared Eliot Technology Education teacher Jared Stevens was head coach, but due to unfortunate events, he is unable to coach this season. This meant that the leadership of the team was left to the captains, Seniors Julia White, Trevor Leach, and Junior Michael Fusco until they found a new coach. Senior Captain Julia White said how she was disappointed with the season at first, but soon learned to adjust to the change and made the best of her last year. While the three ran practice and conditioning, the hunt for a new coach began.
This is the first season all three captains have an official leadership role in Indoor Track. All three captains have past experience in track, competing both in indoor and outdoor during their years at Morgan. During the beginning of the season, Athletic Director Megan Sears served as the supervisor, leaving the mentoring role up to the captains. The captains were in charge of running team practices before their first meet a few weeks later.
Jared Eliot social studies and science teachers Justin Esposito and Jeffrey Duda took up the coaching challenge. For both coaches, this is the first year that they are coaching indoor track. In the past years, both teachers have coached middle school sports teams for several years, with Esposito coaching boy’s basketball, and Duda coaching the cross-country and track teams.
Both Julia White, Aidan Campion, Michael Fusco, Mark Rodriguez, and Michael Derenzo will be competing at the states meet on Friday 2/9.