Westborough indoor track team enjoys successful season
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Westborough - Several members of the Westborough High School indoor track team had a meet to remember when they competed in the State Coaches Association Elite Meet at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston Feb. 3.

Senior Ryan Ruffing won the 300-meter dash at the meet and set a Westborough High School record in the process, with his time of 35.46 seconds.

Sophomore Jeffrey Bush finished fourth in the twomile run with a time of 9:39.55, which also set a school record for the event.

Another school record was set by senior Kevin Stechler, who finished eighth in the 55-meter dash in 6.71 seconds.

Stechler and Ruffing then teamed with fellow seniors John Birkholz and Greyson Thomas to compete in the 800-meter relay, their time of 1:33.34 good for sixth place overall and yet another school record.

"We had a feeling it would all come together at the elite meet," Rangers' track coach Jeremy Nute said. "The guys have been running very well on the Central Mass. tracks we run on all the time and when you then go to a faster track against better competitors it just sets you up to run a great race, and the guys were able to accomplish that."

It's actually been a season to remember for the entire Westborough High track team, which finished its dual meet season 4-0 and won the Mid-Wach B League meet for the third year in a row.

Nute has a large team, with about 60 competitors, a third of whom are seniors, a talent pool that he has drawn from often this year and from which he has gotten very good results.

Serving as senior captains for Nute are Birkholz, Thomas, Scott Dooley and Alex Price. In addition to competing in the relay, Birkholz competes in field events. Dooley and Price are distance runners, with Dooley having the distinction of being the best miler and 1,000 runner on the squad. Price runs the 600, where he battled junior Josh Tynan all year for top honors.

Senior Matt Fereston is the Rangers' best high jumper and he added an exclamation point to a fine season by winning the league meet with a leap of 6 feet, 3 inches.

Senior Eric Chang has been Westborough's most consistent hurdler all season, while classmate Connor Nolan won the Mid-Wach B league meet in the shot put.

The senior class, as good as it is, is not Nute's only group of contributors. The junior class has about 13 athletes on the Rangers' roster, while the sophomore class is almost as large as the senior class - it takes up 18 roster spots.

Junior Andy Haskell competes in the two-mile and teams with Bush to give the Rangers a formidable 1-2 punch in the event.

Sophomore Byron Jones is a mainstay in the mile and also runs the two-mile on occasion.

Nute is a 1999 graduate of Westborough High. He ran cross country and indoor and outdoor track for the Rangers. He is optimistic about the Rangers' chances next week in the Large Division of the Central Mass. Indoor Track Championships .

"We've gradually gotten better through the years," Nute said. "We finished fourth and third over the years, and last year we were second."