The retirement of Karen Weaver last year brought an end to a 35-year run with either her or Lee Stuttle leading the Dryden track and field programs. This winter saw Jason Webb take the reins of the indoor track teams. Now in the spring, two coaches are joining forces to begin a new era.
Neal McDowell takes over as the boys head coach and will focus on all the distance runners, while Abby Wilkinson leads the girls team with a focus on the sprinters and some of the jumpers. Thomas Towner is the Lions’ assistant coach and will mainly work with the other jumpers and the throwers.
McDowell has spent the last five years as an assistant under Weaver. It’s safe to say he learned a lot from such an experienced and successful coach, and there were multiple pieces of advice that Weaver offered that really resonated with McDowell.
“She said, ‘Make it your own team,’” McDowell said. “‘Get to know the other coaches in the region,’ which I’ve been trying to do for the last several years. She said, ‘Focus on everybody. You can’t just focus on one particular event. You need to have the overview of everybody.’ I took that to heart, and I really have been focusing on that. Luckily with Abby joining in, we cover all of the events really well with a real wealth of knowledge. It’s been a great turnover, as far as I can say.”
Wilkinson is in her second year at Dryden and was the head modified coach last season. She’s also the junior varsity girls basketball head coach, and she’s aiming to translate the team-centric environment she helped cultivate on the court out onto the track.
“The first thing [we do] every single practice, we all warm up together,” Wilkinson said. “Everyone’s held accountable. We’re taking our warm-up seriously. But you hear chatter. You hear, ‘Hey, how’s your day going? Hey, how did this go? Wish you the best,’ or something like that. Having that positive atmosphere and having no lower expectations, I think that’s a big thing, too. Our expectations are high and they’re going to stay high.”
The 23-member girls team has quite a few athletes with those lofty expectations, in particular Reagan Burnham. The junior competed at states last year in the 1,500-meter and 3,000-meter runs, the latter of which she also qualified for in 2023 and 2024. Along with seniors Jade Brockner in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes and Hannah Emmelhainz in the 100-meter and 400-meter hurdles, the trio is poised for a stellar spring season.
“There is not one day that those three are not thinking about practice or the next meet, or how they can get better,” Wilkinson said. “That goes the same for school. We see that pretty much across the board with a lot of our great athletes. They’re also great in school. They’re also holding themselves accountable. Jade and Hannah are two of our captains this year. Giving [them] that captain role and seeing them lead and also help others is also helping them in their work. They are extremely self driven and they definitely are up to date on everything that they can be.”
As for the 21-member boys team, it’s no surprise to see the Miles brothers shine early on in the season. Jay specializes in the shot put and discus as well as the 100-meter dash when fully healthy, while Melo is a versatile option who has been best at the 800-meter run so far in his very-young track career.
Speaking of the 800-meter run, that’s what senior captain Eliot Couch has excelled over his four years on the Lions. He’s also competing in the 100-meter dash and the 400-meter runs along with being part of multiple relay teams.
“He’ll do whatever you ask him,” McDowell said. “He is a good leader. When we go out on our long runs and stuff like that, he’ll hold other kids accountable and make sure that they’re doing their runs and that they’re actually out there for the amount of time that they’re supposed to be putting mileage on their legs.”
Other athletes on the boys team to watch out for include senior captain Melvin Scholes (1,600-meter and 3,200-meter runs), senior Joe Oliver (400-meter run), and freshman sprinter and jumper Robert Hernandez.
The foundation that was laid down by Stuttle and Weaver was one of extraordinary success with a myriad of IAC and sectional titles along with strong representation at the state championships. While it can be a daunting task to carry on that sort of seismic legacy, McDowell and Wilkinson have embraced that challenge.
“One thing that [Coach] Weaver was always super proud of and happy about is the fact that she had very few seasons where she didn’t take at least one athlete to states,” McDowell said. “That’s a huge shoe to fill, but we would love to keep that legacy going with taking kids into the postseason as far as we can, hopefully to states, as many years as we can going forward.”
