With varsity letters for all, winter track is part of one long track season for Friar athletes

With cross-country and track acting as a strongpoint for Malvern sports, one would imagine winter track would be as well. However, it remains one of the most underrated sports at Malvern.

Winter track has been at Malvern since the 1960s. Mr. Koenig is entering his fifteenth season coaching winter track at Malvern.

“Its always been a sort of cult. We’re lucky to get around five, six guys out every year but this year I’m lucky enough to get around twenty guys,” said Koenig.

Twenty may look like a crowd to them, but it’s still nothing compared to other teams who field up to fifty runners.

An interesting thing about winter track is that the runners don’t exactly have a defined practice spot. The only organized routine they do everyday is meet at O’Neill, then move to wherever they are running for that day. Being “winter” track, obviously they have some weather difficulties. When faced with snow, the distance runners will run on the roads off campus and the field athletes will practice inside.

Meets are few and far between, solely for the reason that facilities are difficult to locate. The vast majority of the meets will be at Lehigh University’s indoor track, but since it is a collage track, the university’s team usually occupies it.

The Inter-Ac does not house a championship for winter track. The teams are there, it’s just that the league has not developed to accommodate them yet. The greater Philadelphia championship is open to all, and houses a league every year, in which Malvern competes.

Indoor track is not completely indoors. It has every event as normal track except discus and javelin are contested outdoors due to safety reasons.

What are Coach Koenig’s goal for the season? “The main goal every season is to develop athletes…. for the track program, it’s essentially one long season, is to prepare that core group of guys for the spring season… I’m not going to say we’re gonna win states or anything, I just want everyone to show improvement,” said Koenig.

Everyone gets a varsity letter in winter track so it is a great opportunity to compete in a sport on the varsity level. If you have any questions, any of the runners would be glad to answer. You can find them outdoors somewhere in the borough of Malvern….in the snow.