Drury's Meehan, Mount Greylock's Voller Earn Athlete of the Week Honors
One Athlete of the Week was instrumental in her team’s run to the postseason. The other is a runner who already has had his share of success in the postseason.
Drury senior Connor Meehan was the lone Berkshire County boy to take home a gold medal from Saturday’s Central/Western Massachusetts Track and Field Championships.
Meehan ran a time of 1 minute, 58.29 seconds to win the 800 meters at the Division 2 meet at Westfield State University, holding off all-comers and living up to his top seed in the event.
Going into the season, Meehan’s coach talked about how the Xavier University-bound student-athlete would run “with a target on his back" this spring.
On Monday, Meehan said he did not let the pressure of expectations affect his approach to his signature event.
“Obviously, after committing to a DI school, everyone wants to say they beat a soon-to-be Division I runner,” he said. “But it's all up to me. If I go in and run my race, I knew I should come out with a win.”
Earlier in the week, Meehan was named the most valuable runner in the Berkshire County league in a vote of the league’s coaches.
Saturday’s win qualified him for this weekend’s all-state Track and Field Championships at Bridgewater State University.
The Mount Greylock softball team qualified for this week’s Western Massachusetts tournament in its last game of the season when the Mounties edged Drury, 4-2, on senior day in Williamstown.
Senior Rachel Voller had a key two-run single and threw out a runner attempting to steal third base.
The former feat will not surprise anyone who has followed the Mounties over the last four years. The latter was something new as Voller donned catcher’s gear for the first time just a week earlier when classmate Olivia DiNicola turned her ankle.
“I have never caught before,” Voller said. “I was going out to play left field [after DiNicola was injured sliding into home], and coach looks at me and says, ‘Can you catch?’
“I was like, ‘I can try.’ So I was thrown behind the plate, and I’ve been there ever since.”
Voller backstopped the Mounties to the two wins they needed last week to finish 10-10 on the season and qualify for the tournament. They will learn on Tuesday when and where they will open postseason play.