It is rare for it to be silent in a public park on a Saturday morning, but when the racers were given the command, “On your marks,” you could hear a pin drop. Of course, this didn’t last long. As soon as the gun went off, the spectators erupted and started cheering on the teams in the meet. One of the teams receiving the loudest cheers was Westfield, and they used those cheers to have a promising opening meet of the season.
Although some people, like senior Cole Varner, believed that it was an “off day for the team,” the Blue Devils were able to claim second place in their race behind Colts Neck by a margin of just four points.
Overall, in the entire meet, the Blue Devils placed 4th beating big rivals in the county, Union Catholic, and a big competitor from North 2, Group 4, Manalapan High School.
Leading the charge for Westfield was senior Ryan Daly who finished 8th in the race with a final time of 16:28 which places him sixth all time on the Bowdoin Park Course in Blue Devil history.
Daly said, “I knew the race was going to go out hard. I didn’t think we would go out as hard as we did. We were 5:04 at the mile mark and for this course, that is really quick. We expected it to be 5:10 which may not seem like that big of a difference, but it is.”
Throughout the race, Daly didn’t let the strong opening affect him. He stayed attached to the top pack, and didn’t make any big moves which was how he was able to place so high in the race.
Another standout performance stemmed from junior Brody Toriello who finished closely behind Daly with a final time of 16:49 landing him in 15th place. According to Toriello, the key to his success was being able to stick with his two teammates Varner and senior Kaleb Stoeckmann.
Reflecting on the race, Toriello believed the move that propelled him to a successful finish came in the middle of the race. “About 1.5 miles in, right after the biggest hill, I kept myself honest and I went for it on the downhill, separating myself from the pack. I was in and just kept looking ahead for more people to pass,” said Toriello.
This is Toriello’s first year racing on varsity, so head coach Christopher Tafelski was extremely happy with his performance. “Going into this race, experience was the most important thing. We said… that we didn’t want to focus on what other teams were doing and just race to the best of our ability,” said Tafelski.
Looking ahead for the Blue Devils their next meet will be at Holmdel park this Saturday where they will be competing in the Shore Coaches Invitational. In the meantime, Tafelski wants to focus on recovery and sticking to their normal routines.
