Hopewell Track and Field
Jack Biega interviews Coach Brunton on the 2024 – Track and Field Season
Jack Biega sat down with Coach Brunton of the Track and Field program to discuss this years accomplishments, highlights and to talk about what’s upcoming for the 2024-2025 School Year.
Congratulations on an excellent season coach, were there any notable achievements by any athletes in the program this year?
Thank you! We accomplished a lot this past season that we are very proud of. Both the boys and girls teams won their section titles outright, and the boys advanced to the WPIAL Team Final for the first time in program history. The brightest individual highlights were:
Connor Progar breaking the school pole vault record with a 13’7” jump. He also won Beaver County and MAC championships, and he was just a junior. He finished 2nd at WPIAL and 9th at States.
Zach Kovell winning the sprint triple crown – 100m, 200m, 400m – at the Beaver County Championships, and winning meet MVP honors as well. He also took 3rd place in the 400m and 4th in the 200m at WPIAL, and finished 9th in the 400m at States.
Emma Palmieri took home the only state medal this year – 6th place in the 400m. She was the Beaver County champion in the event, and her best times of 25.81 in the 200m and 57.93 for 400m have her on the brink of 2 school records going in to her senior year.
Both the girls and boys 4x100m relay teams medaled at WPIAL and competed at States. The girls return all 4 members next year, and the boys return 3 of 4, so the future is very bright.
Tyler Lewis finished his senior season strong with a 5th place finish in the 110m hurdles at WPIAL, and qualified for States in both the hurdles and 4x100m.
The boys 4x800m relay team – Nico Flitcraft, Trevor Neal, Antony Flitcraft, and Zach Landry – qualified for WPIAL and finished 12th.
Matthias Goth qualified for WPIAL and finished 12th in the 110m hurdles in his first full season as a hurdler.
Nick Adams and Avery Boyd were both WPIAL qualifiers for the triple jump. And Emily Bauknight qualified for pole vault.
When asked if there is a plan to maintain this level of success leading into not just next season but the future of your program.
Brunton responded, “We will continue to work with and develop our younger athletes over the summer and winter. 8 of our 9 state qualifiers return next year. Our junior class is very strong. They already have 3 school records, and could break up to 9 next year. The freshman and sophomore classes are full of talented, hard working athletes who took great leaps in their development this year. There is also a group of promising boys and girls who took part in our Jr High workouts and meets that will make an impact next year as freshmen. Our strategy is to spark and foster a love for the sport, and for the work that is necessary to succeed in it. Kids work hard at what they are required to do, but they become obsessed with what they love to do. Nothing is more satisfying for a coach than seeing that desire burn in their athletes.”
What makes coach Brunton great is his time put in off-season. When I asked if there were workouts or extra activities that anyone interested in participating in the track and field program in the future attend, He mentioned,
“We will have summer workouts at various times through June and July. All ages are welcome to meet me at the Hopewell track on Monday and Thursday evenings 6-7:30pmfor speed workouts, and I and our coaches will also be available for additional practices.”
