Girls' Track & Field

Blair Academy as an institution strives to educate the whole person. We seek to provide a balance between challenging academics and rich extracurricular experiences. The vast majority of our coaches are also teachers, and our students work hard to be successful in the classroom, on the athletic field and within the community.

Blair's track teams operate within this context with a spring schedule of 10 or more meets ranging from dual meets to large relay meets. We compete in all typical high school running and field events, including pole vault and javelin.

Blair offers cross country in the fall and track in the winter and spring, making it possible for a student to run competitively all year long. Few students choose to do this, of course, but the truly dedicated athlete has this option.

Our interscholastic Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) is a very competitive one that includes Lawrenceville, Peddie, Hill, Mercersburg and Hun. These schools, along with numerous other New Jersey private schools, provide the bulk of our competition. We have taken a mile relay team to the Penn Relays every year for nearly a decade and have also competed in the Hill Relays, the Randolph Relays and the East Coast Relays, among others.

The boys' and girls' teams have produced their share of successes, including a qualifier for nationals in the girls’ 1,500 in 2004 and a boys’ distance medley relay team which qualified for the Penn Relays in 2003. The boys’ team won the state prep championship in 2002 and the girls’ team has made steady improvement in their competitive position over the years. Most recently, we've sent athletes to the national championships in the boys' 4 x 400, girls' 100, boys' 100, 200 and 400, and the long jump. In 2016, Blair was home to the number-one long jumper in the country.

Track is a wonderful way to develop speed, strength and self discipline; we invite students to become part of the Blair track family. We look forward to meeting prospective runners and encourage those interested in the team to call or email the coaching staff or contact us when you visit Blair.

Meet Coach Thornton

In 2022, Eddy Thornton became a member of Blair’s history department and began to coach the School’s cross country and track teams. Since 2009, Eddy has taught various levels of history classes at Union Catholic Regional High School in Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Over the course of his tenure there, he served as summer school principal and worked with the athletics and admission offices on marketing and recruiting. He began his teaching career at St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey, after earning his BA in historic preservation from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 2008. Eddy went on to continue his studies in educational leadership, management and policy at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, from which he earned an MA in 2012. Eddy is joined on campus by his wife, Ashley, and their son, Felix.

Contact Coach Thornton at thorne@blair.edu for any questions.

Meet Coach Williams

Assistant coach Mark Williams has been on the track and field coaching staff since 2020. An active runner on the Master's track and field circuit, Williams has earned several honors that include multiple state and national championships in the 800m, 1500m, and the mile for both indoor and outdoor track. He is also a member of the 4x800 indoor relay team who has the M40-44 world record with a time of 7:49.90, and is personally ranked as one of the top middle distance runners in the United States and in the world in his age group. 

Meet Coach Thatcher

Chris Thatcher joined Blair’s faculty in 2016 as a chemistry and physics teacher and assistant wrestling coach. During a 23-year career in engineering, Chris worked in pharmaceutical manufacturing, validation consulting, and medical device research and development. He earned a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering at Princeton University (1993), where he was a four-year Division I wrestler and cross country runner and two-year captain of the wrestling team. Chris has served as Blair’s assistant wrestling coach since 2012, and, in addition to continuing in this role, he is the assistant coach of varsity softball. He serves on the staff of the Center for Innovation and Collaboration and the Lakeside dormitory. He and his wife, Kristi, and their children, Tyler, Tanner, Chelsea, and Adison, live in Blairstown. Chris enjoys trail running, hiking and do-it-yourself projects and has coached more than 30 youth recreational sports teams.

Meet Coach Schrope

Shannon Schrope joins Blair's science department as a biology teacher, bringing to her role experience at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she began working as mitochondrial medicine research assistant in July 2022. Prior to that, she worked as a biochemistry SIGUE postbaccalaureate research fellow at Michigan State University in East Lansing from 2021 to 2022. Shannon earned her Spanish language certificate at Middlebury College in 2019 and studied abroad at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, in 2020, graduating from Vassar College with a BA in biology and hispanic studies with honors in 2021. A swimmer and squash player who has also worked extensively for Habitat for Humanity, she got her start in education as a biology and chemistry tutor at Vassar, as well as a general chemistry supplemental instructor there from 2019 to 2021. Shannon has served as an assistant swim coach at a club in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, and broke records in swimming while at Vassar in the 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke as part of the swim and dive team.

Meet Coach Donlon

Science teacher Dana Donlon joined Blair in the fall of 2022. Since 2015, Dana worked as a science teacher at West Morris Central High School in Chester, New Jersey. Prior to that, she taught at Voorhees High School in Glen Gardner, New Jersey, as well as at Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest, New Jersey, where she also served as a field hockey, track-and-field and swimming coach. After completing her undergraduate work at The College of New Jersey, where she majored in biology and minored in mathematics and chemistry, Dana went on to earn her master of science education from Montana State University in 2016. Early in her career, she worked as an educational consultant who mentored middle-and-high school teachers at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. Dana lives with her husband, Kevin, and children Brendan, Ryan, Kellen and Ciara in Knowlton, New Jersey.

View directions to athletic events. To read recaps about past events, go to the "Team News" tab above.

View more recent photos on Blair's Photoshelter or past seasons (2004-2018) on Blair's Flickr.