The Cinnaminson Winter Track Team last year graduated 19 seniors, leaving behind an enormous hole in the team’s roster. After losing multiple Division I athletes from the distance team (), and a Division II (M) in the shot put, the team is rebuilding, to eventually find last year’s success.
Coach Charles Kind explained that this year was “the start of a long rebuilding process,” which has been the moral of the story for this season.
Kind declared, “We’re already at the end of January and still don’t have an identity. We may go the whole season without having a true identity because of our losses. Overcoming that is not a one-year fix.”
The team is leaning on its seniors and returning members to guide them through this recovery process.
Many newcomers have signed up this year to try and aid the team. Junior Naa’ilah Munson described how all the new faces lead to a more fun environment for the team, and she is eager to watch their talent blossom.
“New freshmen bring excitement into the atmosphere because they’ve never experienced a high school sport,” Munson said.
These new faces are keeping the team’s hopes up as this year as they show promise for the future of the program. Kind explained that this year’s senior group picked up the leadership roles and are beginning to become mentors for the underclassmen.
Senior Josiah Saint Elien was mentioned by Coach Kind as one of the newfound captains of this year’s squad. Kind explained that Saint Elien does not necessarily lead those through his words, but consistently works every practice taking every rep to the best of his ability.
“I try to stay on top of everybody so they can all be good tries and be on their A-game,” Saint Elien said. Elien makes sure that all the younger teammates can keep focused and try to work as hard as he does. He said he does this because he wants to accomplish his own goals, including breaking some of the school records.
“Having a focused group surrounding me is only going to help me move forward,” Saint-Elien said
Kind also highlighted that the leader of the distance group has become senior Anna Marino. Kind mentioned that she leads both boys and girls by example and is having a great senior year as she has placed top 10 in all her 1600m races.
According to Kind, the shotput group has yet to find their leader, as most of the team consists of underclassmen. However, Kind stated that junior Victor Meira is doing a solid job in his first year.
This year is not all about rebuilding though. Senior Derrick Robinson has consistently placed in the top 3 of each high jump event at every meet Cinnaminson has participated in. Robinson has cleared a season high 6’2 multiple times this season.
As the team looks to find itself and continues to search for its identity, they look forward to sectional championships on February 11th and an exciting new spring season as many of their top athletes will be returning from their winter sports.
