NEW YORK — A pair of athletes from Ballston Spa capped off strong indoor track seasons by setting school records at the NYSPHSAA Indoor Track Championships on March 4.
Isaiah Hannah finished third in the 55-meter hurdles at the indoor championships, with his time of 7.50 seconds setting a new Ballston Spa school record. Hannah advanced to the Nike Indoor Nationals over the weekend, placing eighth in both the 55-meter hurdles (7.66) and the 60-meter hurdles (8.17).
Ballston Spa head coach Garry Preece said Hannah got off to a great start at the state meet, noting the senior is “one of the hardest-working kids” he has coached.
“He’s just constantly lifting, trying to get stronger, working on his starts,” said Preece. “That race, he attacked it. … It was very impressive.”
Harriet Healey placed seventh in the 300-meter (40.31), also setting her own school record. Preece said it was great to see Healey reach a podium after competing on the Section 2 Intersectional relay team at the 2022 state meet.
Healey’s personal record in the 300-meter entering this season was 42.29 seconds, according to results posted on athletic.net. Preece said Healey cut her time down to 41.52 seconds at a meet in Boston earlier this year before setting the school record at the state meet.
“She ran in Boston this year, she ran 41.52. It was almost a whole second faster than the year before, her previous PR,” Preece said. “Then, all of a sudden, she ran a 40.31 at the state meet, she ran another second faster. She’s crushing it this year with getting that time down.”
Preece said it was a successful indoor season, noting that in addition to the record-setting efforts of Hannah and Healey, the teams had strong seasons as a whole.
“We had our banquet (March 8), and I mentioned, if you go to MileSplit and you look at our team, you see PR after PR,” said Preece. “And we have such a young team. The girls have a very, very young team, and so do the boys.”
The Scotties’ boys and girls teams saw several highlights throughout the winter, including a sweep at the Viking Games at Hudson Valley Community College on Jan. 15. Preece said it was the first time both teams had won the invitational.
“It was a huge year,” Preece said. “There were a lot of great accomplishments.”
