Girls Indoor Track: Piscataway looks to repeat last season's success

Entering his 18th year as head coach of the Piscataway High School girls indoor track team, Keith Brunson’s motto remains the same, “train slow, run slow.”

The longtime coach does not care if you are a freshman or a three-year starter, those who are working hard in practice have an opportunity to earn a starting position.

“The meets should be the easy with what we do in practice,” Brunson said. “You don’t necessarily get better in the meets, you get better in practice and I tell the kids that all the time."

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The Chiefs’ highly competitive practices have led the perennial Group IV program to successful seasons, including last year, when Piscataway earned gold in the 4x200 and 4x400 meter relays at the Group IV championships.

Seniors Asha Dwyer and Jayda Osborne, along with sophomores Khamil Evans and Shaunte Nelson are the returning lettermen from last year’s first place relay teams.

Evan and Nelson are a testament into Brunson’s belief that regardless of age, you can make an impact on the team.

Last year as freshmen, both were resilient during practiced and continued to significantly improve throughout the season.

“What it was more than anything else was just going out there and racing and holding their own against some of the better runners in the state,” Brunson said. “They really just continued to believe in themselves and continued to improve.”

Brunson is hopeful the freshmen’s progress continues as Piscataway graduated its best athlete from last year’s team, who was the centerpiece of the both relay winning teams.

Tasha Bethea, who is now running for Rowan University, led last year’s relay teams which earned first with a time of 1:47.40 in the 200 and 4:02.96 in the 400 and helped the Chiefs clinch a bronze medal at the Meet of Champions with a time of 4:00.40.

“Replacing her is going to be tough, but somebody’s got to step up,” Brunson said. “We’ve got some seniors and got a couple of freshman that we are keeping our eye on but it’s a competition for that last spot.”

While the relay team will be sure to put up points, the Chiefs are hoping some young runners emerge to get some much-needed points in the long-distance events while relying on seniors in the throwing events.

Senior Kayla Breaux and junior Ky’lyn Lampkin will be throwing in the shot put to provide the Chiefs with some valuable points.

“We’ve had great throwers but we struggled in that area previously,” Brunson said. “Now we have a couple of girls who are really committed and really leading the charge in the throwing team.”

Senior Trinity Hatchett is a versatile athlete that can run the 400, 800 or the 1,600 while senior Shaina Smith will be competing in the 55 and 100 meter hurdles, an area where the Chiefs graduated several seniors from last year’s team.

While the Chiefs’ ultimate goal is to compete for a team state title, Brunson is just looking to get the girls to lower their times and possibly defend their state title in relays.

“The biggest thing is staying focused and trying to repeat but more than anything else bettering our times from last year," Brunson said.

Before Piscataway can defend its relay titles at the Group IV meet, Brunson has already started holding competitive practices to see who can step up and take that coveted spot on the relay team.

“The fastest runners will run,” he said. “If they are here in practice every day and giving us complete and total commitment you will run. The clock doesn’t lie and the fastest runner will run.”