Crawfordsville track and field has plenty of reasons to get excited about this track and field season. Cville will be under the guidance of first year coach Amanda Elizondo as she takes over for Mike Jones. A season ago the Athenian girls defended their county title with the boys having plenty of bright spots along the way.
With a much older boys squad and the mostly the same runners on the girls side, Crawfordsville looks to continue to be a force this season.
For the boys, junior Alec Saidian, who was the county champion in both the 110 and 300 hurdles a year ago returns with high expectations. The distance teams for the Athenians have always been strong and that will again be the case with Ryan Miller, Max Brumett, Jantzen Thayer, and Hutton Haas leading the way. Tyson Fuller is switching from distance to sprints for CHS this season and has already drawn attention from Elizondo.
The girls teams will feature 2023 JR girls runner of the year in Na’arah Byard returning for her junior season. Caroline Melevage, Riley Gardner, Madi Hedrick, Guinevere Schmitzer Torbert, Lily Hummel, Ally Strickland, Caroline and Katherine Novak, and Campbell White are also all returning and provide the CHS girls with plenty of depth.
“It’s really nice being able to come and just having a great base of athletes,” Elizondo said. “Everyone on this team brings such a great work ethic to practice every single day and on top of that they’re all great kids to coach. Early on in the season us as a coaching staff are really trying to see where everyone fits and that’s the challenge of track because there’s so many events and roles that you have to fill. We are trying some new people out in some different places where they may or may not feel comfortable in. That’s all part of it being early and figuring things out as we go.”
Cville will get it’s track and field season underway on Wednesday as county rival Southmont comes to CHS for an early-season dual meet. April 12 is the annual Charger Relays with April 25 being the annual Athenian Relays. Crawfordsville hosts the county meet this season on May 3 with Danville hosting the Sagamore Conference meet on May 12.
