For each indoor track season, the main objective of the pre-postseason portion is to collect a great depth of competitors for the sectional, conference, and state championship meets in order to increase chances for a club to place — which is exactly the plan of attack this winter for the East Haven boys’ and girls’ indoor track squads.

While the overall composition of an indoor campaign is quite different from cross country in the fall or outdoor track during the spring, with no head-to-head competitions against any one or two schools at a time, Head Coach Rusty Dunne remarked that there has been no shortage of heart nor hustle from all of the individuals on each of his squads.

“With indoor season, all of our meets are championship-type meets; there are no dual meets,” said Dunne. “For each event on our schedule, we compete against every team at that meet. For example, with the

SCC Developmental Meet, you are talking about competing against 20-plus teams in the SCC, so it can be difficult to place as a team. We have a great group of the boys and girls that are good kids who work hard. They’ve made a big commitment time-wise. There are no easy practices; we run and strength train.”

On the girls’ squad, the top point producers for East Haven include senior Jessica Urban, who has tallied 23.2 points in meets thus far. Right behind her are junior teammates Aniya Franklin (14 points) and Erica Canfield (13 points). Urban’s counterpart on the boys’ side is freshman Tyler Varveris, with 4.25 points, while he is joined by sophomore Rich Jones with three tallies, and then junior Paul Carangelo, senior Niyel Cornelius, and junior Richard Ackom-Brew (1.25 points apiece).

In discussing some additional key contributors, Dunne noted the contributions of high hurdlers and jumpers of sophomore Dante Rodriguez and senior Ronald Koye, plus junior shot put athlete Antonio Consiglio for the boys, along with fellow female high hurdlers and jumpers of Urban and Canfield, in addition to freshmen Mallory Boney and Ava Panico for that same tandem of events.

For those who have already qualified for state championship action, Canfield clinched a spot for the 55 and 300 dash, high hurdles, and high jump; Urban reached for the latter two of those same events, and Franklin qualified in the shot put.

With respect to the boys, Varveris and Carangelo made the 55 dash event for states, with the former also reaching the 300 dash. That tandem, along with Cornelius and Ackom-Brew, have clinched a slot for the 4x200 relay.

“We always have really good athletes here for East Haven,” said Dunne. “We have spent a lot of time on the long jump, high jump, and hurdles. So with the postseason meets, we will look to score a lot of points there.”

The Yellowjackets next have the SCC Coaches Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 9 a.m., before they then compete in the SCC Western Sectional Championship meet on Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m. This meet will also include Branford, Career, Fairfield Prep, Hamden, North Haven, Notre Dame-West Haven, West Haven, Cross, and Xavier. The SCC Championship meet will take place on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. All events will be held at the Floyd Little Athletic Center in New Haven.

“The Coaches Invitational and West Sectional are both big meets,” Dunne said. “All of these athletes have really performed well. You have to go where the big points are. Urban and Canfield have a good chance to go deep in the high hurdles, high jump, and possibly the long jump. Franklin can go deep in the long jump and shot put. One person can only compete in three events for meets, so Varveris is super fast, but we are not sure if we have four components for relays. If you cannot score with people for relays, then you won’t use them there because it would count as one of those three events. We will see how things go.”

In closing, Dunne noted that many of these athletes will be familiar faces come the springtime when they compete in the outdoor circuit–creating a positive foreboding sign for the Yellowjackets.

“This is a good group, which bodes well for us with outdoor track season,” said Coach Dunne. “The really good kids here will go into late February and maybe March for the indoor postseason, so they will be well-conditioned going into the outdoor year.”

Dunne has been the head coach of the Yellowjackets for 30 years. This season, his staff includes assistant coaches Jim Vicario, who holds 47 years of coaching experience, and Reinaldo Martinez and Niam Coward, both of whom Dunne referred to as “excellent young coaches.”

Composing the boys’ team roster are seniors Cornelius, Koye, Tenzin Kyaptenpa, Chad Mang; juniors Ackom-Brew, Carangelo, Consiglio, Cole Soto; sophomores Nick Balesiro, Frank Cabrera, Mark Chabla, Davione Davis, Jones, Daniel Lares, Alain Ojedas, Rodriguez, Darion Streater; and freshmen Aiden Esposito, Anthony Lacen, William Mensah, Hermes Torrealba, Varveris, and Addan Webster.

The girls’ roster is made up of senior Urban; juniors Angel Bugatti, Canfield, Franklin, Jillian Sperduti; sophomores Mercilyn Ackom-Brew, Keyonna Davenport, Hannah Dudley; and freshmen Boney and Panico.