The first indoor track meet of the season took place on Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021, at the Penn State Indoor Track. Many State High athletes performed strongly, placing in the top 5 in their event.

Going into their first meet, many members of the team were feeling prepared and ready for the start of the indoor season.

“The first meet of the year is always a big meet just to see where you’re at, see where you can improve from,” senior Ryan Lindenberg said prior to the first meet. “[I’m] feeling good; we’ve had a great week of training, as I said, [and] I feel confident in our training plan, so I know I’m going to do well and I know everyone else is going to do well.”

After his events, Lindenberg shared he got a new personal record of 23.29 for the 200-meter race, placing first for State High and 3rd overall. He also competed in the 4×400 meter race with junior Reece Steidle and seniors Matt Staniar and Sean Adams. They placed first overall with a time of 3:33.72, which also put them at #1 in Pennsylvania.

Staniar was feeling good about the meet and shared what the team did leading up to the meet to help him prepare for his one-mile race.

“We’ve done a couple of workouts so far but really we’ve just been getting some base training in, getting some really good runs in, getting our track legs back,” Staniar said.

Staniar completed the race coming in 4th with a time of 4:51.29, an impressive time considering he recently took a break from practice after getting his wisdom teeth taken out.

In addition to preparation done in practices, many members of the track team have their own personal routines that they like to do in preparation for the meet.

“I do a lot of mental —maybe too much—but I like to think about the race, visualize, do a lot of stretching and I eat the same thing normally before I race,”  junior Marlee Kwasnica said.

Kwasnica competed in the 4×800 with sophomore Abigail Bigger and juniors Grace Morningstar and Chloe Poindexter. They came in first place with a time of 9:53.16.

State High will compete at its next indoor meet, the Kevin Dare Invitational, on Jan. 8, 2022.