Westfield High School senior track star Blake Croteau capped off a brilliant high school career with a fourth-place finish at All-States last weekend.
WESTFIELD – Westfield senior distance runner Blake Croteau has been on the run of his life.
Croteau has been the face of Bombers’ running through the cross country, indoor track, and outdoor track seasons for nearly his entire high school career. Alongside fellow seniors, Tim Dostie and Matt Jacobson, the trio has blazed a trail so bright.
Well, last weekend, Croteau extended his run at the All-State championships, finishing fourth in the 2 mile among the state’s best. His time of 9:32.14 was just behind winner Colin Bennie, of Wachusett (9:25.69), Swampscott’s Peter Hale (9:25.76), and Newton North’s Mike Schlichting (9:29.60).
Croteau will bypass the regional competition to participate in a national event.
“If you’re lucky, maybe in your career you’ll see one of him,” Westfield boys’ track and field coach Dana Geis said. “He just challenges everybody, including the coaches. He is focused, dedicated, and has willingness to – no pun intended – go the extra mile.”
The next leg of Croteau’s career will be at UMass-Amherst where he will be a student-athlete, beginning this fall.
“I look forward to see what he does in college and beyond, and in running,” Geis said.
The run will continue for four other Westfield High student-athletes.
Westfield’s 4×100 relay team (seniors Charlie Newman, Alex Martin, Max Cravet, and sophomore Jordaino Oquendo) , who had an eighth place finish at All-States (43.86), will compete as an alternate at the New England regionals even though they missed the cutoff by two spots. The top six teams in each event qualify, but two qualifiers bowed out.
In the girls’ competition, the day belonged to Keri Paton, whose throw of 103 feet, 4 inches was good for 17th in the javelin. Southwick’s Mariah Collins qualified for this weekend’s regional competition in the discus.
RUNNING NOTES: Kiany Roman was the Westfield girls’ track and field team’s highest finisher at the Central/WMass championships, placing ninth in the 200 meters following the trials. She just missed out competing in the finals by a fraction of a second. Roman was the team’s leading point-scorer during the regular season.
TOURNAMENT TIME: The defending WMass D1 champion Westfield High School baseball team struggled to get through the regular season, but have blazed a winning trail through the postseason. Now, on Sunday, the No. 3 Westfield Bombers (14-9) will look to repeat with a win against No. 1 Agawam (17-5) in the title game. The championship will be played at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, beginning at 4 p.m.
