If Saturday’s indoor track and field meet is any indication, the Oak Park and River Forest High School boys team is headed on on a path to success this season. The Huskies defeated Lake Park, which has won four of the past five state titles in Class 3A, 111-30 at the OPRF Field House.
OPRF senior Chris Wright-Madison, a returning All-State performer, cleared the high jump at 6 feet, 5 inches to take first place,
“I’m feeling good and healthy,” Wright-Madison said. “My body is right and I’m really feeling good about this season.”
All-State cross country runner Irwin Loud won the 800-meter run with a time of 2 minutes, 08.15 seconds.
“We have a really good team,” Loud said. “We have lots of good runners and lots of good guys in the field events. I think we’ll have a great team this year.”
Another top returner, senior Desmond Bird-Murphy is focused on improving on his sprint times.
“My goal is to beat all of my personal times from last season,” Bird-Murphy said. “I want to work with the younger guys and get them to improve their times, too. Overall, our goal is to win state. I’m feeling good and the team is looking pretty strong.”
The indoor season is important not only to see how the Huskies fare against their conference foes, but to get back in shape so they can achieve their goal of going downstate in the outdoor season.
“It helps with muscle memory and helps us get back in shape,” Wright-Madison said. “It really helps get ready for the tough competition for the outdoor season.”
“It really helps you see where you’re at with your times,” Loud added. “You can see what you need to work on to improve your times even more when it comes to the outdoor season.”
Coach Tim Hasso is happy with what he’s seen so far early into the indoor season.
“This is a hard-working group of kids,” Hasso said. “For the indoor season, it’s not so much about winning or losing but improving on that time. They have a week to train to get better at their times. That’s the main focus. They’ve been working hard and doing a great job of that so far.”
Wright-Madison is excited to compete in the high jump with a particular focus on doing damage in conference.
“My goal is to win conference in the high jump,” Wright-Madison said. “I also want to help the team win conference.”
While winning a tough conference like the West Suburban Conference is never easy, Loud believes the Huskies are capable of achieving that goal as well as a strong showing at state.
“I think we have a team that can do really well at state,” he said. “We haven’t done well recently in distance running, but we have some great distance runners this year. We should be really good.”
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