When the leaves on the trees turn brown and die, and the snow starts to coat the streets and sidewalks, most athletes other that basketball players are forced to stop their season and wait until spring—but not track. The Parker indoor track team, with about twelve members led by captains seniors Zoë Gardner, Jack McNabola, Axel Burlin, and junior Pilar Grover, began January 16 and over three meets for both the girls’ and boy’s team, will end in the first week of March.

Gardner began her track career in middle school. “Mostly,” she said, “because I wanted something to do,” she said.

Little did she know that it would blossom into an activity she continued up to her senior year of high school. “I ended up meeting a lot of people I really liked,” Gardner said,  “and did it in high school and really liked it too.”

Grover also began her track career in middle school. She said, “I started doing track at Parker in 7th grade when I came.”

Since indoor track is just beginning, with the the first meet on February 3 at Evanston Township High School, the captains are still cementing goals for the season.“I think one of my big goals is to get a team downstate,” McNabola said. “And a personal goal would also be to hopefully win either the two mile or the mile at state.”

There are some differences with this team. “I know that we are having a bunch more soccer girls run indoor with us,” Gardner said. “We are having a lot of new freshmen, which we haven’t in years past, which is very exciting.”

Nathan Siskel, a freshman who joined the team this year, is excited. “I joined track for the exercise,” Siskel said, “and I think track and cross country attract a lot of good people, and they all seem nice.”

Members of the team who choose to run through indoor track into spring track will notice few changes. “Indoor track is when we have all indoor meets, and it basically is like outdoor track,” Gardner said. “We have an indoor state meet, which Jack McNabola and I did last year. We do a lot of our meets at more local schools.”

The history of track at Parker is fairly short, beginning in the 80s and stopping and starting often. In 1999, indoor track officially began under the leadership of Chris Pagnucco, the husband of Pat Pagnucco, former Athletic Director and a current P.E. teacher. Pagnucco, the head track coach at the time, started the track team that exists today. He restarted high school outdoor track, middle school track and high school cross country at Parker. There had been a track program up until the early 80’s, but after it stopped, Pagnucco started it up again in the 90’s.

Gardner also has a goal that she thinks is very important for this year: “My goal is for everyone to have a great time and to feel like they’re a crucial part of the team,” she said, “because I think that’s what makes track special as one of our sports teams at Parker.”