About a year ago, Norwich eighth-grade student, Matt Murray, was preparing for his first season of spring track and field on the Tornado’s modified team. Murray comes from a family of runners, and his older brother Rob was a longtime member of the Norwich track program, so picking up the sport was a no-brainer.
“He ran for us all last year, indoors and outdoors,” said Norwich indoor track and field coach Shaun Horan. “About halfway through his seventh-grade outdoors year, we pulled him up to varsity. Based on the times he was running, we knew he would be competitive. Now, he isn’t just competitive, he’s one of the best quarter-milers.”
Murray picked up where he left off last year at the start of the 2009-2010 indoor season. He was typically at the head of the pack, particularly when he was running against kids closest to his age. Horan explained that the beginning of the indoor season offers meets for freshman- and sophomore-aged kids only, and later, open races for student-athletes of all grades.
“When we put him in against varsity kids, who were mostly juniors and seniors, he was still competing quite well,” Horan said.
Murray consistently led Norwich’s varsity boys throughout the season, and his reward, based on his excellent times, was a 400-meter dash qualifying spot in the postseason National Scholastic Indoor Championships, held last weekend in New York City.
Murray, squaring off against seventh- and eighth-graders from across the country, earned a spot in the finals with a time of just under 55 seconds. In the finals, Murray took his time down yet another notch clocking a Norwich indoor track and field school record, 53.72 seconds. Murray wound up second nationally, and his standout performance has earned him our honor as Evening Sun/Smith Ford LLC Athlete of the Week.
“Obviously, he has a really rare talent,” Horan said of Murray. “You don’t find kids his age running times like that. He really does back that up with a superior work ethic. You put work ethic together with talent, that’s a pretty good equation.”
A recently as three years ago, Norwich did not have an indoor track and field team. Horan, who also serves as varsity cross country coach, revived a program that was dormant nearly 30 years. In fact, records kept from those days were in yards, not in meters. “I had to go through old yearbooks to find results,” Horan said. “All of the records were set in yards, so we just wiped the record book slate clean and started anew.”
With Murray around the next few years, one has the feeling that Horan will be writing and re-writing records down as his eighth-grader matures through his high school years.
For now, Horan said, Murray is fortunate to have several veteran Norwich track performers on the team – indoors and outdoors – who can train as his equal and push him to new limits. “It’s a big benefit (to Matt) to have good role models that can show him the way,” Horan said. “We’re definitely looking forward to how he adapts to the outdoor season.”
Horan, who will serve as assistant coach on the outdoor track and field team that begins competition next month, says Murray will likely compete as a quarter-miler, he may run the 800 meters a few times, and will definitely be a key leg in the Tornado relays. Even with a team that already has plenty of fast kids on it, Murray should more than hold his own this season, and within a couple of years, he may be the person Norwich will build its boys’ team around.
“He has a lot of strengths where he can help us this year,” Horan said. “Looking at the results from this past indoor season, the only guys that were beating him were junior and seniors. We’ve recruited some fast kids for this season and have some fast kids back, but Matt will definitely be a big points scorer for us.”