Leading By Example

By Joseph

At any given track meet, per the rules, you're only allowed to compete in five events.

Yet there's two Valley County athletes that seem to find their way to the front in every single event.

Kirk Capdeville and Shae Stein.

Both seniors, Capdeville and Stein have lifted their respective teams this season and will look to carry them into the State tournament at Thursday's Eastern C Divisional Track Meet.

Capdeville, of Hinsdale, and Stein, of Nashua, have been tearing apart the record books at their respective schools all season. Both are driven by the competitive urge to be the best, even if they aren't being pushed in a regional track meets.

As the great wordsmith Virgil Vaupel wrote of Capdeville, “Kirk hates second places and doesn't really have a fondness for sharing first.” 

The defending state champion in the pole vault, Capdeville has already tied the Class C record this season and will look to break the All-Class record of 15 feet, 9 inches at the State Championships in two weeks. Capdeville, who competes in the pole vault, high jump, 200 meter and both hurdles events, said watching somebody else compete in an event he feels he can win is worse than coming in second place.

“If I lose to them at least I know they're meant to win it,” Capdeville said. “It's a big thing for the team too. You can't let everyone else down only doing one event, thinking of yourself.”

That competitive edge is what's driving Stein into five individual events, though it was a tough decision to not help out on the team relays. A six man team, if coach Marc Kloker put Stein on a relay team, it could qualify the team for State.

“That was tough for me,” Kloker said. “If he was on the mile relay, he'd run probably 15 seconds faster. But do I pull him out of an individual that he could possibly place at? So I kind of left it up to him.”

Stein, who competes in the 100, 200, long jump, triple jump and javelin, has placed in nearly every single event he has entered this season and will be the favorite to win the long jump at State. Though he hasn't broken his school record jump from last season, Stein consistently jumps more than 21 feet in the event, easily the farthest in Class C. Still it nags him that on more than one occasion this season he has nearly jumped 23 feet, but scratched by a hair each time. At Districts, Stein jumped a season-best 21-11, which this season has only been topped by a handful of Class AA athletes.

Yet, despite the amazing athletic ability that both have shown, both Stein and Capdeville have the ability to amaze their coaches from time to time.

Stein just happened to pick up the javelin at a JV meet last season and now holds the school record, winning last week's Districts by nearly 30 feet.

“That just shows what an athlete is that he can muscle it out there with his quickness as opposed to his strength,” Kloker said, while Stein protested that he wasn't strong at all.

Capdeville, on the other hand, decided to pick up the hurdles while training with cousin/teammate Lane. Wanting to run the decathlon in college, he needed to get some experience in the hurdles and at Districts ran the second fastest time in the state this year, finishing in 44.7 seconds.

“He's so darn fast,” said Saco/Hinsdale coach Dwight Freeman, “His form isn't the best but he's so fast in between and he's so strong, he can finish fast.”

To put simply how much each means to their team, at last weeks Districts, Capdeville scored 50 individual points and Stein scored 48, scoring by themselves more points than five schools managed to earn at the event. The only thing that separated the two athletes in scoring was the one event they both actually compete in, the 200.

Even that event has switched back and forth, with the winner normally coming down to one of the two. At Districts, Capdeville won, finishing in a blazing 22.8 seconds. Yet, at the Top 10, Stein beat the entire field, running the event in, you guessed it, 22.8 seconds. Both should challenge for a medal at State.

And expect both to be humble about it if they do come back from Great Falls with championships or records or both. While they are some of the best athletes in the state, neither was particularly boisterous in claiming so. 

So when the two compete this week at the Eastern C Divisional meet, make sure to look for them and cheer them on. If you need help finding them, look toward the front of the pack.