By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Cam and Kyle McLaughlin have been playing baseball just about their entire lives. As twins it only made sense that one (Kyle) would be a pitcher and the other (Cam) would be his battery mate behind the plate calling the pitches. Around the sixth grade Cam was looking for something different to take part in and discovered running.

 

“I just fell in love with it right from the beginning. It was something to do by yourself,” he said. “It was an escape that allowed me to clear my mind; never thought it would take me as far as it has.”

As the twins entered Auburn High School, Cam was enticed to join the cross-country team to help him get fit for the baseball season, although he was apprehensive about it at first.

“I was really not sure about it; going from 1.5 miles to 3.1 miles on the high school level, but I have not regretted doing it at all,” he said. “As a freshman it was daunting to be told to run as fast as you can for 3 miles. I had no confidence in myself whatsoever.”

During that season he continued to shave time off every time he ran and now as he end his senior year he finds his personal best time sitting at 17:15 for the 5K. As he continued to get better over the years he realized that running was something that he could pursue in college and has since committed to Central Connecticut State University to run track and field for the Blue Devils.

Having participated in cross-country and baseball his freshman year at Auburn High School, he decided to try running track during the winter season his sophomore year. Although he found running inside in an enclosed place with people all around him something very different thant running by yourself in the woods, he did find a few events in which he could excel. His main event was the 1000m, in which he ran in 2:41.49 to set the school record and was also part of the 4x800 relay team, running the anchor that raced off to another school record finishing the event in 8:48.59. Cam also has a personal best time of 10:45 in the 2-mile for the Rockets.

“Getting the record was really cool, not a lot of people can say that they have a school record. Although I only broke it by a millisecond the first time I have since broken it two more times,” he said. “Getting the record in the relay during our very last race of the year was awesome. To cross the line with a group of guys you’ve run with all year was really special, especially since they were all seniors and I was the only junior when we broke it.”

Much like his twin brother, Kyle decided to join track during his sophomore year to help his baseball career. 

“I felt that I have always been fast and athletic on the baseball field; track was a good way to expand my athleticism,” he said. “That sophomore year I figured I’d do the dash as I was quick and had no endurance to run distance events.”

Auburn Track Coach Steve Quitadamo had no idea where Kyle would fit in or if for that matter what he would be able to do, but then he had a brainstorm.

“I had three senior hurdlers who would be graduating and I knew that we’d be in trouble the next year so I asked him if he want to give it a shot,” the coach said. “Kyle took it on and the rest is history.”

At first the then sophomore found running and jumping over hurdles was difficult and something he was unsure if he could do, but after working on perfecting the event he was all in.

“It was very challenging with the technique of getting over the hurdle the hardest part. You need to perfect going over the hurdle or you’ll trip and fall,” he said. “It took me basically my entire sophomore year to get things down, but once I did it came easy to me.”

During his junior campaign, he had a breakout season with the event and eventually ran in the New Balance Nationals. Although he didn’t perform his best, he was happy to get the opportunity to go and is looking to improve upon his first performance this year. 

During his three seasons running indoor track for Coach Quitadamo, Kyle has been able to up his brother by capturing six Auburn and two league records. He holds the school and SWCL record in both the 55-meter dash (6.3 seconds) and the 55-meter hurdles with a time of 7.6 seconds. He also holds the records for the 50-yard dash (5.7), 50-yard hurdles (6.7), the long jump (21’9”) and the pentathlon with a total of 3193 points. 

“Having six school records and two league records is a really cool achievement. To get a record in every event that I take part in is actually crazy,” he said. “I never thought about records when I joined track, never mind going to Nationals.”

The first record to drop for Kyle was the 55-meter hurdles and he remembers the moment the coach told him after the race that he had broken the record; it was a great moment. Later that junior year he grabbed the school record in the long jump.

 “I’ve got to thank Coach Q; he put me into the hurdles and thought that I would be good in the long jump, he was right on both decisions,” Kyle said. “Knowing that I was fast and could jump he had a feeling I’d do good. During my very first jump I broke the school record and have since rebroken it.”

Much like learning the specific techniques to get over the hurdles he had to learn the proper techniques with the long jump event. In taking the school record in the pentathlon (hurdles, long jump, high jump, 1000 and shot-put) he knew that he had a shot of doing well.

“This was the first time that I took part in the pentathlon, it was fun but challenging,” he said. “I went into it knowing that I was good in most of the events, so I’d come out with a decent score, but never thought it would be a record-breaking score.”

According to Coach Quitadamo the two are not only very close but they push one another to get better and are very coachable athletes. Together the twins have been able to accumulate eight Auburn track and field records. While Cam will be attending college for track and field in Connecticut next fall,  Kyle will take his pitching and outfield talents to play baseball for the University of Massachusetts in Boston. 

And although they have more records than they could have ever imagined, each knows the other is the best in his particular events.

“Kyle will win the shorter races any day, but if you add just a little distance I’ll beat him every single time,” Cam said, “You really can’t compare us, we both take part in different events.”

Kyle echoed his twin bother’s sentiment adding that he has no chance whatsoever with long distance and he’ll leave that to Cam. 

With the track season winding down, the twins will be on the baseball diamond one last time together as pitcher and catcher for the Rockets, looking to add a championship to their resume.