The indoor track and field team closed its season at the Illinois Top Times state meet on March 28 at Illinois Wesleyan University with junior Taara Sajdeh earning All-State honors in two events. Taara placed third in the 3,200-meter, with a time of 11:09.54, and eighth in the 1,600-meter, with a seasonal best time of 5:14.14.
Earlier in the season at the Misfits Invitational on Jan. 17, Taara qualified for the Championship Division for the New Balance Indoor Track and Field Nationals, where she ran a personal best of 11:09.71 in the two-mile run to hit the automatic qualifying standard. She later competed in Boston on March 13, where she placed 126th.
The team also saw strong performances across the season, including two indoor track and field school records. Eve Dyson set the girls shot put record with a mark of 31 feet 6.75 inches, and Taara set the girls 3,200-meter record with a time of 11:01.26
This season’s team included 48 athletes, more than in previous years, with many newcomers. The team hosted two home meets, Midway Miles 1 and Midway Miles 2, both at the Henry Crown Center, where U-High placed in the top three at both meets, showing both strong team and individual performances.
Track and field coach Austin Warner said indoor track focuses more on individual athlete development rather than team standings.
“We aren’t really looking to win meets as a team,” Mr. Warner said. “We’re focused more so on individual personal bests for indoor track, and then when we get to outdoor track, that’s where we aim for team results at large invitationals.”
Taara said that indoor track as a sport at U-High is an opportunity where all athletes, not just runners, can also prepare for other sports.
“Indoor track is often looked at as a preseason to outdoor and a nice training block where you can sort of use the time to get yourself ready for outdoor track,” Taara said. “In addition, we also get a lot of people who will come in just for the indoor season to work on their endurance or their speed or their agility and that skill ends up transferring to whatever spring sport they end up playing.”
Throughout the season, the team competed at three meets at the Dr. Conrad Worrill Track and Field Center, one of the top indoor facilities in the country. This was different compared to previous years, where they competed at more localized meets. Taara said competing at larger meets helped the team see stronger competition.
Taara said, “It gave a lot of the athletes on our team exposure to what the broader competition in Illinois looked like, and it also meant that a lot of people were able to run very strong times.”
