The Ithaca College men’s indoor track & field squad is coming off a strong 2023 indoor season that saw it finish third in the Liberty League and 14th in the NCAA national championships. While its strong performance was the story of last season, its youth will be the story of this one.
While the team was not able to take home any team wide championships last season, individual performers like senior pole vaulter Dom Mikula and senior sprinter Jalen Leonard-Osbourne did, finishing runner up and third in nationals respectively. Mikula will not return in a performance capacity because of his decision to use his eligibility in the outdoor season and the team will only suit up seven seniors, exactly half of what they rostered last season.
Despite a depleted upper class, head coach Jim Nichols said he is encouraged by the incoming first-year class and is looking forward to former underclassmen stepping up to fill a sizable void. Nichols said that nearly all of the team’s distance runners were also involved in the cross country season this year and that the distance part of the team will carry seven first-year students and only one senior.
“I believe our track team is going to be very youth oriented,” Nichols said. “[Senior pole vaulter] Brendan Sheehan is coming back for Indoors — our All-American pole vaulter for outdoors last year. [Senior] Dom Mikula, a national champion outdoors in the pole vault last year, I believe, is coming back for the outdoor track and field season, so he’ll be able to practice with us indoors and be around, but he won’t be able to compete for us at conference or regionals.”
The team will also continue its trend of bringing back football players to the team. Leonard-Osbourne is expected to be one of the top performers out of that group and coach Nichols said he believes Leonard-Osbourne will continue to be in the race for a national title.
“Leonard-Osborne — star [running back] right now and was a national champion and third in indoors last year in the 60 [meter dash] — I believe he’ll be back for indoors this year,” Nichols said. “You know, when you have a defending champion, you have a national champion. There’s always a chance that he can win nationals, so he should be one of the best runners in not just the conference, but in the country.”
Learning from the leading upperclassmen of the team will be a very special duo of first-year runners. The tight bonds of the team might go farther when it comes to Alex and Max Boreland. Nichols said he is excited for the two and that the hurdlers on the squad will be especially exciting to watch.
“We have two twins, [first-year sprinters] Alex and Max Boreland, who are some very good sprinters that should be able to score in conference right away,” Nichols said. “We have a 400 meter runner and 400 hurdler [first-year student] Joe Napolitano that is excellent. He’ll be on the 4×4 [and] that will help strengthen our 4×4. That’ll be really good and then also our hurdlers should be very, very strong.”
Pole vaulting has been one of the big strengths for the team over the past few seasons, with Mikula taking home the Liberty League championship and runner up in the pole vault last season. With Mikula only being with the team in a training capacity this season, the rest of the team will have to step up and sophomore pole vaulter Rob George said he believes the team has the depth to fill his absence.
“I don’t know if there’s really one specific person to look out for; I think that anyone could have their opportunity to shine this season,” George said. “[Senior] Shaun [Herlihy] could really step up and be a big big part of the team. He’s trying to kind of implement himself as almost like the captain of the team. We vote on captains, we haven’t done it yet, but he’s been taking a lot of initiative getting the team together, so I think that he’s really one that could be a big part of the team. He’s one to look out for this season.”
Coming into the season can be difficult, especially for those who are running cross country and indoor. On the pole vaulting side of it, George said that the team is doing most of the same activities to prepare for the season including new actions to pace out muscle recovery in between high intensity training.
“We do a bunch of drills like upper body strength drills on Fridays,” George said. “We do pool practices, which is basically pole vaulting, but you do the whole thing underwater, so it’s like no resistance and it’s easier on your muscles, but it’s still good for technique. So these are things that we did in previous years, but it’s just stuff that we are continuing to do that I think helps a lot.”
George had dealt with an injury last season and so had sophomore multis Matt Lokshin. Lokshin is switching from exclusively hurdles to multis this season after dealing with sports hernia last season and he said that while the everyday training has stayed the same, the team has integrated new training that have helped recovery.
“We have had our consistency, we’ve had our routines and that’s getting to us,” Lokshin said. “It’s better to be consistent when they introduce new things especially into the season. We did have a few changes where we had yoga on Thursdays for a few weeks to satisfy some days that we weren’t allowed to practice and I think that was helpful and would like to see more of that.”
With many set to overlook the team due to its young roster, Lokshin is not deterred and said that a championship could be in the near future for the South Hill squad.
“I completely believe our ceiling is winning the Liberty League,” Lokshin said. “I think we’ll be that within the next year or soon very easily. We have a lot of guys, we get a lot more guys coming in the next first-year class and I think that if everyone keeps the same level of competitiveness, in fact everyone keeps the same level of eagerness, then I think we’re going to be in a really good spot.”
