This spring, Catasauqua’s Josiah Lafond has been among the Colonial League leaders in the 110 and 300 hurdles.

Lafond recently recorded first–place finishes in both events at a recent meet against Northwestern. However, it didn’t begin that way for the junior.

“I’ve always looked forward to participating in track and field since young, but my journey began freshman year, recalled Lafond. “I started out long jumping until I realized it wasn’t for me.”

Soon after, hurdling was on the horizon. Last season, Lafond finished fourth in the 300 hurdles (42.23) and seventh in the 110 (16.17) at the league meet, and he was fourth in the 300 (41.98) and eighth (16.29) in the 110 at the district meet.

“Shorty after I tried hurdling and my coaches were impressed to see that I already had the fundamentals of a good hurdler and I started training from there,” added Lafond. “I started running hurdles because there is so much that goes into hurdling and it’s one of those events that not every athlete can do.”

Head coach Kyle Rusnock has watched Lafond’s dedication and determination pay dividends for him.

“Josiah Lafond has started the season on a high note,” beamed Rusnock. “He currently leads the league in both the 110m hurdles as well as the 300m hurdles. He has worked hard over the winter with Coach (Madison) Walker and competed in multiple indoor meets focusing on the 60m hurdles in order to improve his start speed.”

Rusnock also has been impressed with Lafond’s leadership abilities, and he sees him continuing to excel.

“He has also taken to helping the underclassman learn and train,” added Rusnock. “Josiah has shown an impressive drive to continue to get better each week. He has high aspirations for the post season that the coaching staff whole heatedly believes he can achieve.

“We expect big things to come from Lafond.”