Printer Friendly Version - Valley Boys’ Track Motivated Towards Making Major Marks

Junior Aidan Babek and the Valley boys’ outdoor track team have already made sensational strides this spring, scoring a victory over Old Saybrook in their first dual meet of 2023. Photo by Kelley Fryer/The Courier

The Valley Regional boys’ outdoor track team may be very young when looking at the numbers and grade years on its roster, yet the Warriors are certainly spry when it comes to attacking their personal goals and the top-tier competition within the Shoreline Conference.

Valley finished in 11th place with 13 points scored at the Shoreline Conference Championship at Old Saybrook High School for 2022. This season, the Warriors sport a youthful group and, in only their first dual meet of the campaign, have equaled their win total from last year by splitting matchups with conference heavyweights Old Saybrook and Old Lyme.

Head Coach Kevin Woods explained that the early slate of events for Valley may be a little lighter than other programs by way of comparison, though it has been for the betterment of all parties involved to give way to more attention spent on solo success.

“We have not had a lot of meets yet when compared to other teams who participate in a lot of invitational events,” said Woods. “But we have placed an emphasis on working in practices. We have seen a lot of improvements from last year, and our numbers have gone up. Sometimes you need less to do more, and we are seeing good results of that. The kids are really developing the abilities to perform better. The meets for us will become much more regularly scheduled now as we move forward with basically one a week. The kids have bought in, and we are starting to see team and individual improvements. We are excited to see where it all takes us.”

Back on April 19, the Warriors traveled to Old Saybrook for a tri-meet to take on the host Rams, along with Old Lyme. The Valley squad won its meet against Old Saybrook, 72-62 and lost to Old Lyme, 80-64, to earn a split on the afternoon.

They saw some great individual performances from junior Jack Driscoll, who finished first in the high jump, the 100, and he was part of the 4x100 relay foursome that found first place.

Elsewhere, junior Aidan Babek won the long jump. Junior classmate Paul Giantonio finished runner-up for the long jump, second in the high jump behind Driscoll, and he was also a member of the 4x100 relay team. Junior McKinley Hartt and Babek rounded out the aforementioned victorious 4x100 group. Junior Zach Scott won the 3200 for the Warriors. He was accompanied by sophomore Lyle Pitman, junior Avi Siegel, and sophomore Kenny Batt for a first place finish in the 4x800 relay race as well.

“We split our first dual meet of the year, which was good,” said Woods. “Year in and year out, Old Saybrook is one of the dominant teams in the Shoreline Conference. Old Lyme is loaded, too. We competed well with both of them, and we were right there. It shows we have grown the last couple of years.”

On April 25, the Warriors split their tri-meet, defeating Hale-Ray and losing to hosting Coginchaug. The boys were led by Giantonio, winner of the long jump (18-11), high jump (5-8), and the 4x100 relay (along with Driscoll, Hartt, and Babek). Other strong performances came by way of Driscoll, who was first for the shot put (35-8) and Scott, who ran personal bests in the 1600 (5:14) and 3200 (in 11:30). The boys are now 2-2 in the Shoreline on the season and for their dual-meet record overall.

Distance runner specialist Siegel is leading the charge for the Warriors as their lone captain for the 2023 squad. While he is not an officially designated captain, fellow junior classmate Scott has given the young team an added boost by being a true iron man for the underclassmen to emulate.

“With a young team, we wanted to focus on the team rather than designating multiple captains,” said Woods. “Avi has done a nice job of communicating with the team and setting expectations with his work ethic. He’s done a nice job as captain. Zach is also a distance runner, who is closest to being a second captain. He is an incredibly hard worker and runs all the distance events within a meet. He is a workhorse and has gotten a lot of points for us. He also leads by example.”

Elsewhere, Woods wielded high remarks regarding a versatile athlete in Driscoll, along with track and field rookie Giantonio, key cog in relays and sprinting events with Babek, and finally middle-distance specialist with Batt.

“Jack is our top point scorer so far; he is a distance runner and does the jumping events, but you name the event, he can do it,” said Woods. “You will always get the maximum amount of points out of him. He’s in contention for All-Shoreline Team accolades. Paul is a newcomer who is a very good athlete who has also scored points for us. Aidan is the anchor of our relays. He can also do jumps and is another athlete we can spread around to get points. Kenny is a sub-minute 400 runner. He is a guy we can count on for points in the 400 and 4x800 relay events.”

While Woods aims to have every single one of his athletes get a great deal of entertainment and enthusiasm for the sport out of this season, he additionally noted that the kids take great pride in looking at the raw data of their efforts towards potentially creeping up in the club standings for the conference championship.

“Our number one goal is for the kids to have fun and enjoy the competition,” said Woods. “Track is a different way to feel good about things. With the way we have conducted things here, the kids are really excited. They love seeing their times and numbers and seeing the benchmarks; it gets them motivated. We would like to go .500 or better for our dual-meet record, as that would be a successful season for us. At Shorelines, we want to see us finish in the top half as a team. We would also like to have some All-Shoreline Conference Team athletes with guys finishing first or second in events.”

The 2023 Valley Regional boys’ outdoor track team roster is comprised of seniors Samuel Bourez, Michael Galberth; juniors of Babek, Stephen Courcy, Driscoll, Giantonio, Hartt, Sam Kehlenbach, Zachary Knox, Chris Lopez, Cooper Ohr, Scott, Siegel, Elliot Stack, Liam Welch; sophomores with Batt, Finn Boyles, MCoy Gosman, Cooper Mondelci, Pitman, Adam Schmelzer, Andrew Thomas; and finally freshmen in Jackson Carson, Joshua Clark, Nathan Mezick, Oliver Proctor, and Cody Saunders. Woods will be assisted this spring by Kathryn Ryan.

Wednesday, May 24: at Shoreline Conference Championship at East Hampton at 2:30 p.m.