Track & Field

Blair’s winter track program is designed to accommodate both experienced and novice runners at distances from 200 to 3,200 meters. Athletes also participate in track-and-field events, including horizontal jumps and indoor shot put. The season places significant emphasis on preparation for the spring athletic season for both track and non-track and field events.

We train on campus in our seasonal winter sports complex. In the “bubble,” all of our equipment, including jump mats, hurdles, weights, pulleys, sleds, medicine balls and bands, is readily available, and there is plenty of room to practice jumps, throws and running events. Weather permitting, we also train on local roads and on our all-weather track, all in preparation for open meets at various universities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In addition to our open schedule, we also compete in the state prep and Mid-Atlantic Prep League (MAPL) championship meets held in the Lavino Fieldhouse at The Lawrenceville School. Interested runners should contact Coach Murray.   

Meet Coach Murray

Will Murray was appointed as the head winter track & field coach in 2022. A member of Blair’s math department, Coach Murray holds dual bachelor’s degrees from Miami University, one in mathematics and statistics and a second in French. In 2021, he earned his master’s degree in mathematics from Western Washington University, where he gained classroom experience as a graduate teaching assistant, filling the role of primary instructor for courses in Calculus, Precalculus and Algebraic Functions. Will has worked in a variety of other positions that include clinical database programmer for a medical laboratory in Cincinnati, Ohio, and an office manager intern for a cycling and adventure company in Camaret-sur-Aigues, France. In addition at Blair, he will teach mathematics and coach varsity baseball.

Contact Coach Murray at murraw@blair.edu with 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 Browse

Assistant coach R. Latta Browse, appointed in 1982, graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1978 from Middlebury College with a BA in mathematics. In 1989, he earned an MALS in Islamic studies at Columbia University and, in 1991, received his CAS in mathematics from Wesleyan University. Latta taught high school mathematics as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malaysia from 1978 to 1981. For two years, he taught at Antwerp International School as an international baccalaureate math teacher. Over the years, Latta has served in a variety of capacities, including housemaster of Davies, West and Mason Halls, dorm resident in Locke, and sophomore class monitor. He has also served as head or assistant coach for a myriad of sports, including JV soccer, JV baseball, varsity soccer, varsity baseball, winter track and boys' cross country. Latta is currently head coach of the girls' cross country team. He is married to Carolyn Conforti-Browse '79, a veteran English teacher at Blair. They have two children: Tyler '08 and Annelies '13.

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.

Meet Coach Link

Patrick Link joined Blair as a mathematics teacher in 2022. A 2002 graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, Patrick majored in mathematics and began his teaching career at the Dublin School in New Hampshire as a math teacher and assistant sailing coach, ultimately becoming head of the women’s crew team. Prior to that, he worked in quality assurance and as a tutor before joining The Kiski School in Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, in 2007 as a math teacher, dorm head and cross country coach. In 2020, after 13 years, he and his wife, Eliza, moved to St. Edward’s School, in Vero Beach, Florida, where he taught a wide variety of math classes and sponsored the Social Justice Club and served on the Honor Board and Discipline Council.

Meet Coach Trish 

Gina Trish, who worked at Blair in a part-time role as Leadership Stories Project coordinator from 2016-2018 while also serving as art history and design professor at Centenary University in Hackettstown, New Jersey, returned to Blair as a full-time member of our fine arts department. Since 2018, Gina has served as digital communications and press lead for the New Jersey Lieutenant Governor’s Office and the Department of Community Affairs. After earning a BA in fine arts with a concentration in visual communications from George Washington University in 1997, Gina held a number of roles related to the arts, communications and marketing, beginning her career as a senior designer at Fidelity Investments in Boston and later becoming art gallery director of GJ Cloninger & Co. in Morris Plains, New Jersey. Following a yearlong stint as Peters Valley School of Craft’s guest artist in residence in 2006, Gina became a freelance web development designer. Her teaching experience includes serving as a painting and drawing instructor at The House of the Good Shepherd in Hackettstown and developing and teaching undergraduate-level courses at Centenary. She has also pursued a number of postgraduate arts courses on advanced painting, sculpture and drawing. Gina coaches JV girls’ soccer and track at the School. She, her husband, Tyson, and their children Weston ’25 and Cameron, live near campus in downtown Blairstown. 

 

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

View photos from the 2022-2023 season on Blair's Photoshelter.

The "bubble"-enclosed winter sports complex is a seasonal landmark on Blair's campus during the coldest months of the year. Created by enclosing a portion of the tennis center under an air dome, the facility features two tennis courts and a turf field, giving teams plenty of room to practice. 

The winter track team has found the extra space and ability to set up hurdles at further distances a huge advantage as athletes train for competitions.