The ConVal track and field team is hungry for a trip up the podium at Saturday’s Division II state championships, and they showed off a preview of things to come at their final home track meet on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a little bit sad,” ConVal’s senior leader Ross Stephens said of the Cougars’ last time around their home track, “but I’m happy that this is where I’m doing it and these are the people that I’m doing it with. I literally could not have asked for a better way for my career and for my season to turn out. And I’m really happy that I got to do it with these guys.”
Stephens, already a highly decorated sprinter with several school and state records under his belt, anchors ConVal’s 4×400-meter relay team and plans to run the 100, 200 and 400 meters as well, as the Cougars will drop their 4×100-meter relay team to diversify their scoring events. Stephens and Griffin Schultz are expected to have big scoring days if the Cougars are to place well.
“I really want the sprint double in the 400 and 200,” Stephens said, “but now that I have the 100 on my hands too, I think the triple crown in all three sprints would make my whole career.”
The Cougars looked great at Thursday’s meet, which saw Milford take first in both the boys’ and girls’ team scoring as ConVal and Conant rested some athletes in certain events in anticipation of the state meet. ConVal got winning performances from Jack Telofski (110-meter hurdles, 300-meter hurdles), Larianna Trudel (200-meter, 400-meter), Schultz (400-meter), Whitney Adair (800-meter), Sunya Nikatina (discus) and Ethan Whitaker (javelin).
Stephens only ran one event, teaming with Schultz, Bretton Davies and Walter Stephens for the 4×400-meter, which got interesting; the Cougars set out to break the school record of 3:27.38, and they did, but after crossing the finish line, Stephens spiked the baton in celebration, which garnered a disqualification by rule. The record doesn’t officially count, but the Cougars will have a chance to do it again at the state championship meet at Londonderry Saturday.
Aside from that odd celebratory disqualification, Stephens has been an effective leader for his team this spring. Coming up alongside William Simard, who’s now running at UMass-Lowell, he saw firsthand how senior leadership could benefit young runners as the two broke records side by side. Now, he’s in the leadership role, and the team is thriving.
“I think it’s really nice when people come up to me and they look for guidance and they look for questions to be answered and they want me to hear out their goals,” Stephens said. “And what I do is, I hear them out. I help guide them because I know that at one point, that was me. I was the one who was looking for guidance. I only ran 58th my freshman year. I had no anticipation of ever even seeing the top three at states. And now I might be going on to win six state titles throughout my career.”
Conant also had a good day at the track, where senior Amelia Hill won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races, Roland Dumont and Sophia Battisti both won in pole vault, David Levesque won shot put and the Orioles won both the boys’ and girls’ 4×400-meter relays. The Orioles will compete at their own Division III state meet at Pelham Sunday.