For the second straight season, Keene State Men’s Cross Country took home the Little East Conference (LEC) championship title. After a very successful season, the Owls’ coaching staff was awarded the LEC Coaching Staff of the Year for the conference.
Assistant Coach Dylan Flewelling commented on what it meant to him and Roark to be deemed this award from the league
“It’s pretty cool, our men’s team was pretty competitive all season, I think they knew what they were capable of and they just executed at the end of the day which is always a good feeling,” said Flewelling.
In his first year on the staff, Flewelling definitely made his presence known as he had a great relationship with and was spoken highly of Roark.
Roark had a very humble answer when asked how it felt to receive this award for the second straight year.
“I think it’s great, but our athletes make us look good, they are the ones putting in the hard work, we just tell them what to do but when the gun goes off, there’s only so much we can do as a coaching staff,” said Roark. “I think the hard work is done during the week, but our athletes are the ones that put in that work.”
It was a very successful year overall for Keene State, with tons of improvements throughout the season from many runners buying in overall, according to Roark. It was a very close team that fed off of each other and that constantly wanted to improve and get better every single day, Roark added.
Junior Tyler Bolaske spoke on how it was having Rourke and Flewelling around for his junior season, and how specifically Flewelling improved his performance.
“It was great, this was the first season that I had two coaches, Dylan [Flewelling] did a lot of workouts with me and just having him around was really beneficial for me as an individual, and for the team as a whole because he is very knowledgeable about running, arguably more than Dan [Roark], so it was really beneficial to have him around,” said Bolaske.
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