Zach Winn
Equinox Staff
In 1999 Keene State College had no Butler Court, no Media Arts Center and you were likely to hear someone humming the newest Backstreet Boys single while walking along Appian Way. A lot has changed since 1999, the year the Little East Conference was created. But for coach Pete Thomas and the women’s cross country team, one thing has remained the same year after year: winning.
Oct. 27 marked the thirteenth consecutive year the Lady Owls have taken home the LEC Championship. Not to be outdone, the men also placed first this year. With two trophies after coaching both teams to victory, it’s safe to say Thomas didn’t mind having his hands full for the ride back from Westfield State.
“I’m really happy for both teams,” Thomas, coach of 23 years, said.
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The coach is equally happy for two teams that won in very different ways.
After an unexpected second place finish in last year’s championship, the men won by a whopping 26 points to claim the title this year.
“Last year we lost LEC’s by a couple points,” junior Ryan Widzgowski said. “It was upsetting because I feel like we may have taken things for granted a bit but this year we all had the same mindset going in to win the league championship.”
In contrast, the women, inched by the University of Southern Maine to keep the streak alive.
“It was definitely more of a challenge this year because we lost quite a few seniors last year who were really strong runners,” junior Marie Whitney said. “And also you had USM who was really good this year so it was definitely hard, especially the last 800 meters because there was a pack of their runners and a pack of ours and we were just kind of fighting for that win.”
In the end, the women finished with an average time less than two seconds better than USM and were able to pull out a nail-biting five-point victory.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s nice, it’s nice to keep the streak alive,” Thomas conceded. “The USM coach was like ‘I thought we were going to get you this year, we’re graduating a lot of girls, probably won’t be near you for another ten years’. I said ‘Well I hope so,” Thomas said. But the coach also admitted sometimes the close races are the most fun, as long as you’re the team that wins, of course.
When looking at either team’s victory, it’s hard not to admire what Thomas has done. This kind of relentless dominance is seldom seen; while the coach is quick to deflect attention away from himself, his players praise him any chance they get.
“I think that he just has so much experience with so many different athletes that he knows how to tailor everything towards us individually,” senior Maggie Fitter said.
Other players also noted Thomas’s experience when talking about his coaching strengths.
“He’s had such success here that we’re behind his training 100 percent,” senior Andrew Sears said.
But winning so consistently goes beyond just coaching. To be successful as a college coach you must have a keen eye for talent as well.
“He’s always recruited really good high school runners to come here, he sees the potential in people and he knows what he’s doing,” Fitter said. “He’s been around a while, he’s just a great coach.”
Ryan Widzgowski said Thomas is a big reason why he chose KSC.
“He’s very honest when he tells you what you’re capable of during the recruiting process and if you listen to him he tells you what he can make you be with his coaching, so he’s very straightforward, which I respected,” Widzgowski said.
No one seems to regret their decision. Widzgowski, who placed fourth in the championship, added that he never thought he’d improve so much in his first three years here.
So after taking care of business in the LEC’s, both teams now look forward to regionals. For the seniors, it could be their last race. No matter what happens, they can be content in knowing they can call themselves conference champions.
They won it for themselves, they won it for their teammates, and they won it for the coach who is quietly racking up a historical resume.
“With [Thomas] winning it since the LEC was created, we thought to ourselves we can’t lose this for [Thomas], so just to win made us all really proud,” Fitter said, smiling. “It kept the streak alive.”
Some things never change.
Zach Winn can be contacted
at zwinn@keene-equinox.com