Former Nashua North standout Rory Curran is shown winning the 3000 meters in the last NHIAA indoor title meet held , in February of 2020. For the second straight year thanks to the pandemic, there isn't an official NHIAA sanctioned indoor season. (Telegaph file photo)

NASHUA – It’s the high school sport that’s been most impacted by the pandemic.

Indoor track was one of the few winter sports to be able to determine champions, just holding its state meets just over a month before the COVID grip began in 2020.

But there hasn’t been a regular indoor boys and girls championship-geared track season since.

There was hope that things would return to normal this year. But colleges really have the only legitimate venues in the state to hold full-fledged meets, and the University of New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, and Plymouth State aren’t taking in guest events. Dartmouth was always the site of the state championship meet.

PSC was said to be a possibility but renovations to its track facility basically took them out of the mix over the last year. A couple of schools are competing at Phillips Exeter, but the protocols, including requirement for for full proof of vaccination, are a bit too stringent for some schools, including Nashua, so that option was off the table for many.

Now, that being said, this winter is much better than last year, because local athletes have found a home in the Dome. Yes, thanks to the facility tied to Hampshire Hills, the Hampshire Dome in Milford, some “mini meets” can be held.

The facility has been used for various sports over the years – even baseball and college softball – and its small track allows for local schools to compete in some indoor track events.

Events held are the 55 meter run, the 300, 600, 1500, 55 hurdles, 4×300 relay, high jump and shot put.

Not bad. But while the athletes and coaches certainly feel those are better than nothing, they lament the loss of what they’ve been used to.

“It’s not enough to fill the whole schedule,” Nashua North girls coach Renee Archer said. “It is good to have something; the kids seem to enjoy themselves when they’re there. There’s some quality teams there. It’s very small, but it’s competitive.”

The events are tempered down, as the athletes have to adjust to the track and also some of the conditions for other events, such as high jumping. It is good for throwing, Archer said.

“It’s better than nothing, but there’s no NHIAA sanctioned meets,” Archer said. “We’ve been invited to a couple of out-of-state things. I know there’s teams that are looking to host their own throwing and high jump meets, but again, that’s all we’re really going to get done.”

There was a big meet involving North, South, Bishop Guertin, Merrimack, Souhegan and Keene boys and girls teams last week, and the Titans are competing in a couple in January. There’s another meet involving local teams on Dec. 28, but in the one last week times and distances were used to qualify for the Boston Holiday Classic at the Reggie Lewis Center on Dec. 27. So there was certainly a competitive purpose to last week’s meet.

“This is way better than last year,” Archer said. “It’s just three or four meets, but it’s way better than last year.”

The fact that both North teams were able to win the Division I title last spring without an indoor season to more or less get them acclimated was a big accomplishment. Archer, whose team was second indoors to Exeter in 2020, said her athletes were looking forward to a full indoor season.

“I know some of the kids kind of feel a little defeated, coming from such a great outdoor season after having nothing (last winter),” she said. “But we’ve got a pretty good group of kids coming in every day, they’re working hard, and hopefully we can do something to build the momentum to push forward for another successful outdoor.”

It’s not perfect, but the 2021-22 winter is at least a lap in the right direction.