Over his 19 years as the Newton South girls cross country, indoor and outdoor track teams coach, Steven McChesney has guided many great athletes and witnessed countless record-setting performances, so much so that he admits he sometimes takes such performances for granted.
But there are individuals who stand out even among the best, not only in Lion history but in the state's as well. So when South finished second at the All-State Championships at the Reggie Lewis Center Feb. 25 to add more hardware to its already well-stocked trophy case, there was one showing that left the Lion contingent, and McChesney himself, buzzing.
Following an admittedly poor - by their standards - outing in finishing second to Dual County League rival Lincoln-Sudbury at the Division I Championships a week earlier, the members of the Lions' 4x800 relay aspired not necessarily to beat L-S or set the state mark. Their goal was to simply run better than they had at DIs. As it turned out, they accomplished all of the above.
Junior Juliet Ryan-Davis ran the first leg in 2:20, opening up a sizable lead on L-S. Senior Diana Braver then took the baton, running a 2:20 split before handing off to classmate Julia Frieze, who completed her leg in 2:23. Taking the stick with only a slight lead, junior Bridget Dahlberg, who earlier that day had won the All-State title in the mile, further solidified her standing as the finest anchor leg in the state, and one of the best runners in South history, laying the hammer down in 2:18. The quartet's time of 9:23.67 earned it a first-place finish and broke the All-State meet record of 9:25.20 set by L-S in 2007.
``I think we knew that we had the potential to set the record, but I don't think we actually thought we would do it,'' says Braver.
``We weren't talking about the other teams or the record, we were talking about getting together as a team and talking about how good we could be,'' said Ryan-Davis.
For McChesney, the destination was just as satisfying as the journey.
``I'm just very proud of them, the way they've progressed and their accomplishments,'' says McChesney. ``We thought that even though teams had won All-States in the past running 9:48 that they'd have to run 9:20 to beat Weymouth and L-S. They all hit it on the same day and to beat as much talent as they did on the same day is impressive.''
And the best was yet to come. Three weeks later in the National Scholastic Indoor Track and Field Championships at New York City's Armory Track, the girls, running for the Newton Centre Athletic track club, shattered the previous best with a time of 9:16.27. Each ran their personal best split as Ryan-Davis clocked a 2:17, Braver turned in a 2:20, Frieze posted a 2:21 and Dahlberg came in at 2:18 to earn All-America status.
It was the second All-America honor on the day for Dahlberg and Ryan-Davis, both of whom had teamed with freshman Kathy O'Keefe and fellow junior Kelsey Karys to place third in the 4xMile relay. It was also familiar territory for the highly decorated Dahlberg, now a three-time All-State champion and four-time All-American after finishing fourth in the mile at Nationals in March 2007 and fourth in the 4xMile a few months later.
With Braver and Frieze already well-versed in the 200, 400, 600 and 800, Ryan-Davis experienced in the mile, 2-mile and 3.1-mile cross country races, and Dahlberg skilled in everything from the 400 up, the 4x800 - as has been emphatically proven - was uniquely suited to this foursome's prodigious talents.
``The relays give us a chance to pool our best talent,'' says McChesney. ``We take more pride in our relays, I think, because it's a team accomplishment as opposed to an individual one. These girls are all gifted and this race compounds their talents.''
Granted none of this was new for Dahlberg. As a [as]freshman[xs], she won the Division 1 mile crown in the winter and spring, while also anchoring the All-State champion 4x800 team in the latter season earning to earn this publication's Runner of the Year award. She won the ROY again last winter after winning the All-State mile title and anchoring the second-place 4x800 in a campaign McChesney called ``a season for the decades.'' And if not for the Newton North 4x800, which set the All-State meet record at 9:15.13, Dahlberg would have been the ROY for the third time in her first four varsity seasons after setting the school mark in the 800 (2:15.6), mile (4:58.77) and 2-mile (10:52.23). Oh, and she was also a Tribune Soccer All-Star this past fall.
But the end-of-the-year rewards didn't come without struggle. After soccer season, Dahlberg must build up strength and is initially behind her fellow distance runners, most of whom do cross country and have been doing workouts since late August. She struggled at the outset, and labored through some heavy early season workouts, but the results speak for themselves.
``She's a dynamic anchor,'' says McChesney. ``She knows how to race and how to chase people down. She was in a tough situation early in the season when I was giving her some tough workouts. But she had the character to keep believing and she understood that she would be fine. Even though she was run down from behind a few times, she trusted the workouts and forgot about what had happened in the past. She understands where she's going and what she's capable of, and not everybody does.''
The wily veteran of the group, Braver, is a four-time Tribune All-Star and versatile presence that goes beyond her value as a member of the 4x800 team. McChesney calls her the ``best pure athlete on the team,'' and the evidence backs that up. With Dahlberg as the lead leg, Braver, then a sophomore, ran the third leg of the Lion 4x800 team that finished second at the Division I meet in winter 2006. She then finished third in the open 800 at DIs that spring while also running the lead leg of the All-State title 4x800 team, a team that also had Frieze and Dahlberg. Last winter, Braver placed third in the 600 at DIs, ran the lead leg of the 4x800 squad that was second at DIs and third at All-States and took seventh in the high jump. Then, last spring, she was fourth in the open 800 at DIs, turned in a 2:21 leg on the spring school-record 4x800 and came in sixth in the MSTCA pentathlon.
Ryan-Davis, meanwhile, has been something of a late-bloomer. But in the past two years the junior has blossomed into South's third-best distance runner behind Dahlberg and Cross Country co-Runner of the Year Karys. After coming back from injury last winter, Ryan-Davis placed fourth in the mile at DIs and ran a leg of the 4x800 before earning All-America status at Nationals as part of the fourth-place 4xMile team. She was then 12th this fall at DIs to earn a Tribune All-Star nod before her breakout season this winter. Called a ``calming influence'' by McChesney, Ryan-Davis was fourth in the mile at both DIs and All-States in addition to her duties on the 4x800 squad.
Frieze, perhaps the most talkative of the soft-spoken quartet, placed fourth in the 600 at the DCL Championships, but saved her best work for the relay.
And even though these four are unequivocally All-Stars in their own right, their accomplishments as a group eclipse anything they've done individually. And that is what makes these four, as a unit, the 2008 Daily News Tribune Runners of the Year.
``The great thing about this relay is that there is no weak link,'' says McChesney. ``I thought about tinkering and changing Juliet to anchor, but they had faith in what they were doing and they were more convinced than I was that they were going to get it done.''
It didn't always appear that way, particularly early in the season. With Dahlberg struggling - again, by her standards - and L-S beating them when the teams went head-to-head, there was a ``intimidation factor'' the girls had to conquer before they could make a run at the ultimate prize.
``They had gotten beat by L-S a few times and they're a formidable team,'' says McChesney. ``I tried to tell them to focus more on winning and not to worry about losing. And they continued to focus, and they came together nicely. They did have to get over the intimidation factor, but I think all the hard work culminated when we ran a 12:20 in the distance medley at the McIntyre Relays. That's when they knew they were ready to take the next step.''
Though they say they don't measure themselves against L-S, the Warriors are always omnipresent given that they are constantly vying with the Lions for the top spot in the DCL. Whether or not L-S serves as a measuring stick for South, there is no question that having such stiff competition within the league lets the Lions know what they'll be in for at the state meets.
``If we didn't have L-S as a mark, then we would be a lot slower, so they help us,'' says Dahlberg. ``When we get to the state meets, there are a few more teams throw in, but we know what the competition will be like. It's not much of an adjustment to dual meets.''
With the winter school record already theirs, the quartet is now similarly ambitious about owning the spring 4x800 mark as well. They've gotten their taste of victory, they know how it feels to be the best in the state. And they like it.
``We definitely want to do it again,'' affirms Frieze.
The potential, as evidenced by this past winter's performance, is there. There's no reason to doubt them.
``I see how hard they work, and each of them struggled at some points, and we didn't always do well early in the season, but they came back,'' McChesney said. ``They're four good friends and they have great chemistry and I can't say enough about what they've done.''
Or what they might still do.
