sprinter
The BFA-St. Albans track and field and cross country teams have trained incredible athletes over the years. Records have been set and broken, and it can be hard to remember who accomplished what as the years roll on. Thanks to the efforts of BFA-St. Albans track and field and cross country coach Mike Mashtare and assistant athletic director Jordan O’Grady, the Top-10 lists for both sports are available to be viewed by anyone interested in seeing who’s set the bar in BFA-St. Albans athletics.
Do you remember this race? Loghan Hughes guts out a 1500m win at the Essex Invitational in 2022. Hughes went on to win two state titles in June, one in the 1500m and one in the 3000m. She is on several BFA-St. Albans Top-10 lists.
In the last five years, the teams have had some outstanding athletes who’ve cracked these lists, and now their names and those of the athletes who came before them can be found on the BFA-St. Albans athletics website. Simply visit the athletics website, scroll below the photos, and keep an eye out for the links to the individual lists. You can also visit samessenger.com and find the online article with live links to the lists.
Mashtare spoke of the efforts made to get the information available for viewing.
“Years ago, an assistant coach, Greg Hunter, went through binders of results looking to update a Top-10 List I’d started. A couple of years ago I wanted to do a list for each class and do a Top Performers List. So I went through all the old binders and BFA scrapbooks and spent hours of time on newspapers.com looking at results from BFA Track and Field’s first days back in1958 to the present. I did the same for the Top 10 Lists for cross country courses and came up with the idea for the All-Star Teams to recognize more of the incredible runners we’ve had pass through the programs over the years.”
Porter Hurteau crosses the finish line to claim first place in a time of 15:41.26 at the 2023 Meet of Champions on Saturday, Nov. 4.
Mashtare reminded readers that the results are subject to available information.
“The Top 10 Lists are only as accurate as the results I was able to find,” said Mashtare, “I’m sure there are times and distances out there I wasn’t able to find, especially before I started coaching over 40 years ago.”
When asked what the lists will add to the community, Mashtare said, “I would say it lets the local running community see that these sports have been around for years with incredible athletes participating from the beginning and right up until the present time.”
Blured