2008 BOYS INDOOR TRACK RUNNER OF THE YEAR: An eventful season for North's Arsenault

Sam Arsenault started running track for the same reason many parents have their kids pick up sports.

``I just needed to get out a little excess energy,'' says Arsenault. ``It felt good from the start.''

And, almost nine years after that day when the 8-year-old perpetual-motion machine first stepped on the oval for the Waltham Track Club, it still feels good, regardless of which of his six events he's competing in. The Newton North junior has been a key member of the vaunted Tiger track program for the last two years and was voted the team and Bay State Conference MVP this past winter.

In a long line of elite performers for North track, Arsenault is the latest star, a versatile athlete capable of competing in the hurdles, high jump, long jump, triple jump, sprints and sprint relays. And, like so many Tigers stars before him, Arsenault is the latest to win the Daily News Tribune Runner of the Year.

``We had some great performances this year, but there's no question the Sam was our MVP,'' says Jim Blackburn, a man familiar with brilliance after coaching the Tiger cross country, winter and spring track teams to a Triple Crown in 2005, part of a run of five straight All-State titles.

After a BSC dual-meet season in which he went undefeated in the 55-meter hurdles, Arsenault ran the second leg of the 4x400 relay that won the BSC championship. But Arsenault further solidified his status among the elite in the next two weeks at the Division 1 and All-State Championships. At D1s on Feb. 17, Arsenault ran on the victorious 4x200 and 4x400 relays, while leading North's 3-4-5 finish in the long jump. Leading North's six-man crew (``We didn't need a bus, we all just piled in one car,'' laughs Arsenault.), he leaped 21 feet, 9 inches to take third in the long jump in front of senior Ivan Kostidinov and Adam Bao. Arsenault then ran the lead leg of the 4x200, followed by Bao, senior Hymlaire Lamisere and Kostidinov as the quartet finished in a winning time of 1 minute, 32.33 seconds before joining Bao, senior Seb Putzeys and Kostidinov to win the 4x400 in 3 minutes, 25.72 seconds. All told, Arsenault had a hand in 26 of the Tigers' 47 points in their third-place finish that day.
Arsenault padded his rep even more at All-States on the Feb. 25, helping the 4x200 take third (1:33.40) and finishing sixth in the long jump (21-6) as North placed fifth in the team competition with 19 points. Had it not been for a disqualification due to a lane infraction, the 4x400 would have come in third and bumped the Tigers up into a third-place tie with BSC rival Brookline with 25 points.

The DQ in the 4x400 notwithstanding (``That was a bummer,'' he says), Arsenault considered the postseason run a success, especially with the skeleton crew, which he says was ``by far the smallest team there.'' Of course, the strong showing from such a tiny squad only served to highlight the talent within, especially Arsenault's.

``We had a really small team, but everybody did their part,'' says Arsenault. ``Everybody in that group is so versatile that they can move wherever coach needs us.''

Being wherever his coach needs him has been Arsenault's calling card in his two seasons on the Tiger varsity and Blackburn's use of his star, and the rest of his athletes for that matter, has been virtually impeccable. In the last 11 years, the Tigers have not lost an indoor or outdoor dual meet, a run of 143 consecutive wins - a tradition of excellence Arsenault and teammates are serious about upholding. With this selection, he becomes the 15th straight Tiger to win Tribune indoor or outdoor ROY honors dating back to the winter of 2001.

``You don't want to let the program down,'' says Arsenault. ``There's such tradition and everybody works so hard to keep the win streak going. Coach Blackburn is such a great motivator and he can bring everybody out of the woodwork.''

Arsenault includes himself in that assessment, praising Blackburn not simply for prodding him to reach his potential, but for reminding him when he hasn't.

``He's a soft-spoken guy, but he tells it like it is,'' says Arsenault of Blackburn, an accomplished sprinter in his younger days. ``He'll tell you if he doesn't think you're working hard enough. He's the best coach I've ever had. He's been through it all, so he knows.''

Given his pedigree, that much is certain, which is why his pick for his own pupil for the area's top honor is above reproach. Counting the remaining weeks of the current spring campaign, Arsenault has three seasons left at North, ample time to expand on his already impressive resume. Next up on his list is the decathlon to which he is uniquely suited given his wide range of talents.

``It's hard to pick a favorite event, but I guess it'd be the decathlon since it includes everything,'' says Arsenault. ``I also like the high jump because I so much more work to do and there's so much more room for improvement. My outdoor PR (personal record) is 6-4, so I'd like to get to 6-7 because that's the school record.''

One of Arsenault's other stated goals is to ``get on the map at a national meet,'' and to that end, he trains year-round, competing in the summer with the Waltham Track Club, which is coached by North girls track coach Joe Tranchita.

``It's hard to do (competing all year) because you don't want to push yourself too hard and tire yourself out,'' says Arsenault. ``I try to conserve myself, but sometimes, it's had to do.''

Imagine that, the kid who once had too much energy is now trying to save some of it. But you wouldn't know it from his past marks and the goals he's set for himself in the future. He says he'd like to add some more inches to his long jump mark after cracking the 22-foot barrier this past winter in addition to paring his time in the 300 hurdles under 40 seconds this spring.

Though just a junior, he hopes to join other North alumni and past Tribune ROYs at the Division I collegiate level (Chris Barnicle, Arkansas; David Polgar, Boston University; David Smith, Yale; Jed Carpenter, Virginia) and his prodigious talents have already attracted some college offers. He's received recruiting letters and he is slated to attend a BU track practice soon.

But there's still work to be done at North, where he hopes to lead the Tigers back to their familiar place among the best teams at the Division 1 and All-State Championship Meets. There, he'll likely be wearing a pair of shamrock-patterned socks his mother bought him recently. He wears them every meet, ostensibly for luck.

But if you're at all familiar with his results, you know he doesn't need it.