Indoor track stands No. 3 on Fitch High long-distance runner’s Brandy LeClair’s sports’ priority list, behind cross country and outdoor spring track.
“Cross country is my favorite because we have a strong team, and I enjoy running outdoors in the spring,” she said. “To be honest, indoor track is the least important to me.”
Her Eastern Connecticut Conference opponents would hate to see what LeClair would do if she specialized in indoor winter running.
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The Falcon junior produced a rare triple victory at the ECC Large Indoor Championships, winning the 3,200 and 1,600 meter runs and running a leg on the first-place 4x800 relay with Sarah Kate Parizo, Samantha Kiely and Sara Dinovelli. Logging 3 ½ miles of championship running is not a breezy run in the park. Many would not have attempted the triple, especially considering Fitch was not in contention for a team title. The Falcons finished third of six teams.
But the fact that LeClair took on all three events speaks volumes about her competitiveness, dedication to her teammates and her pride.
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“After winning the ECC Cross Country Meet and establishing herself as the best distance runner in the ECC, she didn’t want to relinquish that title by being beaten in either the 1600 or 3200,” Fitch coach Rich Kosta said. “As far as the relay goes, it was important for her to anchor that event and to share the victory and ALL-ECC status with her teammates.”
LeClair skipped the 1600 to focus on the 3200 at the Class L state meet Friday and it paid off as she finished first. Kiely added first in the 600 to help Fitch finish sixth.
Her times, 5:28 in the 1600 and 11:57 in the 3200, did not challenge any ECC indoor records, but Kosta views that as a positive.
"Brandy has certainly matured as a competitor," Kosta said. "She has learned over the course of her junior year cross country season and indoor track season to manage her workload and not push herself to the point of exhaustion but certainly hard enough to win in ECC competition.”
LeClair and Ledyard’s Cedar Nelson battled for ECC cross country supremecy this fall. LeClair won every confrontation until the State Open and New England meets. Both will return next year, though Leclair felt a void at the ECC Meet indoors because Nelson opted to bypass the winter season.
“I'm kind of disappointed because we both push each other in a positive way,” she said. “Cedar focused on other things outside of sports like chorus. I’m sure we’ll pick it up again in the spring.”
LeClair may not encounter competition within the ECC today. Her standards to beat are from a previous time.
“Fitch once had the state’s best long distance runners, winning State Open cross country championships [in the late ‘90s] over and over again,” she said. “I want to break a Jessica Shenk's 3200 Fitch outdoor record, because it would really mean something.”
