Armed with a new coaching staff, the race is on as the track team prepares for the upcoming spring season. The Rams are bouncing back to continue where they left off after a rewarding season last year.

Both the boys and girls teams lost key seniors who were strong runners and leaders. The boys lost Mark Spewak and Drew Padgett. The girls lost Samantha Levin, Jocelyn Todd, and Montenae Roye-Seight. All five run at college now after successful careers at Ladue.

“The main thing the team hopes to improve in the upcoming season is sending more runners to the state meet. The boys have been among the top contenders at the meet for the last decade.

“The boys have been in the top four teams eight out of the last 10 years,” head coach Keith Harder said. “We feel we can be in the top four and maybe win it all. We need to win the conference meet and qualify as many members as we can. The hard thing is we are the smallest big-class school, but we do well. ”

The team fosters young talent. Harder feels confident with their abilities and hopes they work hard enough to overcome any challenges.

“The group is junior-dominated and has broken all the school records,” Harder said. “Depending on how hard they work, they have the talent to overcome what other groups before them have done.”

The girls also dominate at the state meet every year. They have been in the top four every year for the past 10 years.

“We have won two state titles and have had a dominating presence since 2002,” Harder said.  “We are definitely distance and middle-distance dominated. We have three returning sprinters: Kaneesha Austin, Shayla Arnold and Alexis Briscoe. They are the key to our success and could be state champions. We also have strong sophomores and juniors. We don’t plan on taking a single step back this year.”

Assisting the team in achieving their new goals is an all-new coaching staff. Harder believes the top-tier coaches will improve the team significantly.

“We have five new coaches,” Harder said. “Tiffany Spain was a national hurdles champion in college. Roland Hill ran track while I was coach at Webster Groves in the 1990s. Prohkorets Slava is a fixture around Ladue and helped with football and girls soccer conditioning. Suzanne Person, the boys cross country coach, will help distance runners and John Spencer will be her assistant. We’ve had a major turnover. Through the interview process, we figured that these coaches would help Ladue stay on top throughout the season. Stevhon Greenly has also done a great job.”

Last year, runners broke state records. Returning team members hope to replicate their success this year.

Even before the state meet, long practices condition the runners to have a good season. The runners must be in top physical fitness to participate.

“We run about 40 minutes a day,” sophomore Zach Levens said. “Most runners learn to put up with the pain because the workouts are the only way to get in shape and to stay in shape. But it’s the best feeling afterward to know that you got a little bit better that day, even though during the workout itself it is terrible.”

The Rams have set high expectations for themselves. Teamwork makes the training seem easier.

“My personal goal is to run a 4:50 mile,” Levens said. “To a layperson, that seems absolutely ludicrous, but the world record is a 3:43, which is less than a minute per lap. The faster you go, the greater the chance you will qualify for a big meet. But besides winning races and working out, we want to have fun. We have great camaraderie and track is a really fun activity when you’re with fun people, even though it’s physically strenuous.”

The first few weeks of practice can be difficult while recovering from the off-season. The runners have to get back into the routine of going to practice and recuperate to prepare for early meets.

“The off-season is really nice because it’s pretty stress-free it’s a nice break from the competitive season,” Hutchens said. “It can be an obstacle to recover from the relatively relaxing break and get back into the swing of things, but we are able to prepare for early meets, like McCluer. The early meets can set the tone for the rest of the season.”