On Oct. 16, the Westfield boys cross country team suited up to take on the Watchung Division of the Union County Conference meet. Head coach, Chris Tafelski, decided to rest their top two runners, senior Kaleb Stoeckmann and senior Ryan Daly, in hopes that they will be better prepared for the more important upcoming meets.
This decision came at a cost because the Blue Devils came in second place to Union Catholic, with a final tally of 28-47.
Knowing Westfield’s two top runners were benched, the three through eight runners were tasked with beating a fully assembled UC squad. Senior Cole Varner who was a part of the top pack in this race said, “We knew that not having Daly or Stoeckmann in this race would be tough, but we had a plan and did our best to stick to it. We went into the race knowing that it would be fast and thin up top.” Fast and thin up top it was, Varner and junior Brody Toriello were out at the first mile at the 4:53 mark with only 2 other kids.
Despite Westfield walking away with a somewhat lackluster second place finish, assistant Coach Kyle Muller was, “surprised with Varner and Toriello because breaking the 16 minute barrier is not an easy thing to do.”
Even with the disappointing final result all six of the boys ran a personal best. Toriello led the charge with a 15:50 snagging 2nd place overall, Varner came close behind notched a 15:54 for 3rd place. Sophomore Alex Davlouros had the biggest time drop of the day running 16:22, senior Jack Hill ran 16:44, sophomore Nikos Davloros and junior Christain Buonopane ran 17:01 and 17:09 respectively.
“I really wasn’t too nervous going into the race,” Davlouros said after his race. “Coach really emphasized the fact that this wasn’t an important race for me so that put me at ease and really let me experiment with my racing strategies which is what let me perform so well today,” he said.
Although this race didn’t have huge implications for the team itself, it had huge implications for Varner because with this new personal record on a completely flat course, a lot of the midwestern college coaches will finally be able to understand what he is truly capable of doing.
On Thursday the Blue Devils plan to go into the meet guns blazing with all of their top seven runners competing, in hopes to break the four year streak of coming in second place at the Union County meet.
