Maddie Stoltz ’23 and Arielle Chechile ’24 wasted no time setting the bar for their spring track season, posting school records in the first meet for Wilbraham & Monson Academy on April 8.

Maddie bettered her previous mark in the discus by nearly two feet, improving with a throw of 76 feet, 6 inches, from 74-9. Meanwhile, Arielle took .10 seconds off her time in the 200-meter dash, finishing in 26.5.

WMA girls won the home meet with 89 points, topping Pomfret School (38) and Kingswood Oxford School (22).

Quotes

From Coach Danielle Vartabedian: “These performances were surprises this early in the season. They both work hard and are seasoned athletes in their events. They just came in stronger than last spring and have a whole season ahead of them. I’m excited for them keep achieving success.”

Maddie on how she felt going into the meet: “I was definitely a little bit nervous. The last time I had thrown competitively was the New England Championships, so it had been almost a full year since I had thrown outside of practice. Also, you never know who you're going to be up against at a meet, so you should be prepared to give it your all every time. Luckily, though, I've had a ton of support from friends, teammates and coaches leading up to the meet and cheering me on.”

Arielle on her expectations headed into the first meet of the season: “Going into the meet I was feeling confident in the team's ability to perform well. However, I did not at all have PR expectations for myself. My goal going in was to get sub-27 seconds in the 200 because that would set up my season well, but I was not expecting to PR the way I did. Before my race I was unhappy with my performance in another event, so on the line for the 200 I was just hoping to hit my goal time.”

Maddie on bettering her school record: “Setting a school record is one of the highest honors that you can achieve in track and field, so I'm definitely very excited to have done so again with the discus.”

Arielle on improving on her school record: “I am very excited about breaking the school record. It means that I am purely competing against myself and the only way I can re-break it is to beat myself.”