The South Hadley girls indoor track & field team has high expectations this season.
The Tigers have built one of the most competitive indoor and outdoor programs over the past few years. While they expect to keep the regular-season success going, they also expect to achieve what often times follows that success.
“They’re super excited,” coach Nick Davis said. “The first three days of practice were the most hyped – beginning of the season – I’ve ever seen them. That was really exciting. It’s going to be one of those years where we just roll off the success we had from indoor to outdoor last year, and then move it right into the winter and spring.”
The Tigers return almost their entire lineup from their PVIAC championship team. It was the first western Mass. indoor title in program history.
South Hadley returns three individual PVIAC champions and three-quarters of one winning relay. It also brings back many place-winners from PVIACs.
“We really didn’t lose that many girls,” Davis said. “We’re looking at having almost the same scoring roster as we had last year for the western Mass. meet.”
Savannah Sudyka (shot put), Lindsay Marjanski (high jump) and Jocelyne Rondeau (1,000 meters) placed first at PVIAC.
Kayla Carleton, Marjanski and Rondeau teamed with recent graduate Sarah Fudger to win the 4×400 relay.
The success and confidence stems from a winning culture that has spread throughout the school. Many of the athletes on the indoor and outdoor team come from winning field hockey or soccer programs.
“The school has done a pretty good job itself of creating a culture of high expectations and everyone wants to work really hard so it gets us to the point where by the time our girls come in for the indoor season they already know what to expect,” Davis said. “They know it’s going to be going straight from Day 1 to the hard stuff and we don’t take our foot off the gas until it’s time to taper for the big meets.”
The potential first showed in 2017 when the Tigers placed second at the state Division 5 indoor championship. Last winter South Hadley took home the PVIAC title, then tied for third in Division 5 behind two-time champion Littleton.
With the upperclassmen leading the way, South Hadley is expecting to push hard for more titles.
“We’re moving into this group mentality that’s working really well,” Davis said. “We can definitely tell that Sarah, who was around for a long time, is going to be a void, but I think at this point we now have enough girls that took what they could from her and now they can transition into their own leadership style. It’s pretty cool to watch.”
Sudyka, Rondeau, Rahilly, Carleton and Jarrett form a strong senior class. Maddie Doolittle, Hailey Werenski and Marjanski are talented juniors.
“That top end will definitely carry some weight,” Davis sad. “We have quite a few younger kids that are going to get some work.”
Sophomore Farrell Dawson had a strong outdoor season and can do anything from the 600 to 2-mile. Classmate Maddie Foley and junior Taylor Jackson add some depth to the shot put behind Sudyka.
The Tigers will compete in a few invitational and big meets before the postseason arrives in early February. It will be a quick turnaround with only five days between the PVIAC championship and the Division 5 state meet at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Boston.
Davis is confident his team will be ready.
“I think we’ll be able to carry that taper through and keep them peaked for five days,” he said. “We’d really like to have the back-to-back titles for PVIACs, and convert that runner-up to a championship for the state title. That’s our game plan right now.”
