Riley Stegall poses for media day.
Sophomore Riley Stegall has He was always fast. Since she was little, every coach has found ways to show off her speed, whether it’s stealing bases on the softball field, outrunning defenders on the soccer field, or outrunning her competitors on the track.
In her first year at Oberlin High School, Stegall worked with head and track and field coach Christina Madison, who helped her foster a healthy relationship with the sport and dramatically improve her speed. Her coaching and leadership began to pay off as Steggall and her tight-knit team at Oberlin High School had a great 2019 season. Steggall’s 4×200 relay team ran at regionals and was on the verge of qualifying for states. Three members of that season’s team, who have been faster since regionals, returned in 2020 and were poised to reach states in the spring. However, days after they competed at indoor states, the COVID-19 pandemic led to school closures, and the outdoor season was cancelled.
Steggall has stayed fit at home during the pandemic thanks to Chloe Ting’s ab exercises on YouTube, and has continued running as a way to get out of the house and prepare for her next opportunity to run competitively. However, she was becoming increasingly frustrated with the opportunities she was missing out on. When the 2021 season finally ended and Steggall was able to run with the team again, she attacked the season with new passion and energy.
However, despite her desire to make the most of her season, Steggall’s relationship with track began to sour due to her new coach. The coach’s methods were toxic both physically and mentally. They became Steggall’s coach around the same time when she realized she wanted to enter the world of sports as a future career. I was moved by a 2019 video detailing the abuse American track star Mary Cain endured while a runner in Nike’s Oregon Project. Cain was forced to develop an eating disorder by her coach Alberto Salazar, and suffered immense mental torture at the hands of her male coaches.
“I was taking some career readiness classes, and [my teacher] He asked me: What is the reason? “And I said to myself, ‘This is why,'” Stegall said. “No athlete should have to go through this — the abuse in the sports system for women, especially female runners — because it’s hard on you physically and mentally.”
Coach Stegall mismanaged workouts and created a hostile environment, forcing the athletes to push their bodies beyond their capacity and refusing to listen to feedback or interpret how the athletes were feeling.
“We did 300s a few times a week,” Stegall said. “He was just pushing our bodies to the absolute limits. He didn’t care what we said; we would try to talk to him about our training and it would go in one ear and out the other.
Not only were the coach’s tactics detrimental to Steggall’s mental health, but her track results were suffering as well.
“I think success can be measured very easily,” Stegall said. “You run faster when you get better, and no one was getting better because we were all in this terrible environment with this coach who didn’t know what he was doing and wasn’t a good coach. Just generally bad vibes all around. And we were still in school.” Virtual, so track and work were the only things I cared about [was] a job. No one was in a great place mentally, and I was going to do this thing every day that I loved to do and now I was being destroyed by this guy. “It was a very dark time for me.”
Steggall often left training crying and feeling completely defeated. Her relationship with herself, food, and exercise quickly deteriorated, and she began to struggle with her mental health.
“Going back to women, especially female athletes in sports, there’s a lot of evidence behind eating and performance disorders, and I think all of that combined in that small environment was not a good time for me,” Stegall said. “[Second-year] I [Fritz], who I work with now at Oberlin, we would talk every day and say, “When are we going to quit?” I’ll quit when you quit, haha, but there were points where it wasn’t a joke. It was bad, and this was not the place we should be. I would come home crying to my mother every day and say, “I hate this.”
Due to the trauma of her first-year experience, Stegall ultimately did not run throughout her senior year, although she realized that few schools would take her seriously as a recruit because she did not run her final year. She narrowed her college search focus to academics and hoped she could still run on a club team. After committing to Oberlin, Ben Wach contacted Steggall, an assistant track and field coach who focuses on the sprints and hurdles. Wach invited Steggall to come meet him and talk about possibly joining the team.
Steggall was initially against running competitively again and was not planning to respond to Wach’s letter until her mother convinced her that there was no downside to at least talking to him.
Their conversation started in one of the worst ways possible — Wash said he was a New York Yankees fan. Steggall is a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, so learning that her would-be coach is her archenemy in baseball was a huge bump in the road. However, he was funny and kind and completely understood why she didn’t manage her senior year.
Although Steggall’s visit ultimately went well, she had no intention of joining the team, contrary to what she told Wach.
“I said, ‘Yes, I’ll consider joining the team,’” Stegall said. “At this point, I was lying to this guy’s face. I wasn’t planning on joining the team. In fact, I was texting Anna and saying, ‘Girl, if I’m doing this, you’re doing this.’” If you join this team, you should to join in, too. I talked to her recently and she said, ‘Yes, I technically committed to the team over the summer but I thought there was no way I would actually run in college.'” Going into the first couple of practices, I was like, “We’ll see how it goes, but there won’t be Promises.
In her first week with the team, Stegall’s time was about what she ran as a high school student, as she had not practiced regularly in nearly two years. However, her teammates seem to care more about her as a person than how much time she runs.
“Team environment and atmosphere — And I don’t say this as, “Oh my God, we’re so cool.” — “I really don’t think I would have found it anywhere else,” Stegall said. “I’m very serious when I say I’m not going to run in college and the only reason I’m running is because of the program here. At any other school, I would have said, ‘No, no thanks.’ But what we have here and what the coaches and teammates have fostered here, it’s crazy.” truly.
Stegall attributes most of her success to Wash, who has now become her mentor, coach and trusted advisor.
“I bared my soul to Ben Wash,” Stegall said. “It’s controversial that this guy knows a lot about me, but that’s okay. He does a really good job of balancing it out – crazy! – so we don’t train every day. We have a full rest on Sunday, and two recovery days during the week, usually Mondays.” And Wednesdays and Fridays are the tough days, but he’s really good at understanding athletes. We have a few meetings every two weeks where he says, ‘Tell me about your life.’ Tell me about who you are. And those things are always eye-opening and I think putting people in front of athletes is what makes this “The team is amazing. He doesn’t get enough praise for everything he does. He’s actually amazing and I can’t imagine a better coach than him.”
Steggall’s growth and development on the team came to a head last weekend in the team’s first meet of the season at Case Western Reserve University. Before the meet, her three goals were to have fun, strengthen her core when running, and be kind to herself.
“A big part of the path for me has been mindset, trying to get into the mindset that this is something I love doing and it’s something I have a support system around and making sure the relationship I have with it is very healthy.” Stegall said.
After competing in the long jump, which she says is not one of the best events she has competed in, Stegall began mentally preparing to run the 60 meters.
“I remember getting to 60 and saying to myself, ‘Yes, I’m going to eat this up,’” Stegall said. “Honestly, I went in there with a lot of confidence because I said, ‘This is my event.’” I think I came out of something I didn’t do well because it was so new and [then] When I went into something that I felt very comfortable with, I said to myself, “This is all about me.”
Steggall’s personal record in the event was 8.32, which was good enough to give her the sixth seed in the race. After winning her heat by running a PR of 8.19, she qualified for the final race and realized she had absolutely nothing to lose. Still brimming with confidence, Steggall stepped up to the line, did her routine, and closed the door.
When the race was over, she knew she finished in the top two, but she wasn’t sure if she had beaten the girl in two lanes — until she saw Wash.
“Back to coach Wash W [Assistant Track and Field Coach] “Izzy Alexander, another one of our coaches, said, ‘Riley, you win,’” Stegall said. “And I look at that time and it’s 8.05. And I actually started cursing my coach. I was actually losing my mind and couldn’t process anything. It’s like I was in a daze. I was so excited, I was so happy, but looking at the numbers this The thing is, it’s strange.
After beating her personal record by nearly three-tenths of a second in just one meet, Stegall turned her attention to the 200 meters, for which she was placed in the fastest competition. “Fruit snacks, applesauce, and adrenaline” was all she had going for this race, but the motivation she needed came from her captain, fourth-year Miranda Montoy.
“Miranda, one of our leaders, says, ‘Riley, why don’t you just win it? You’re going to have to run the race anyway, why don’t you win it?’ I didn’t get out of the blocks very quickly, but I was still feeling good, and I arrived,” Stegall said. On to the second curve and I’m close to the girl next to me.” “I told her, ‘Girl, you’ve got to fight for this, you’ve got to want it.’ Do you want this?’ I said, “Yes, I do that.” So I picked up the pace, and at this point I had a tear running down my face because the 200 is so fast and there are so many curves. And then I won. My internal PR last year was 28.1 and I got 27.2. My outside PR is 27.1, so we’re ahead of her.
Since persevering and pursuing her career at Oberlin, she has not only flourished as an athlete, but has been involved in many athletic spaces on campus. She works with Athletics Communications, is the Community Outreach Officer and Student Athlete Advisory Committee Coordinator for the Queer Student Athlete Group.
Since setting two new personal records and winning both events, Steggall is now looking to improve on those results and dominate more events as a team.
“I’m really excited about this season, and I think we’re going to do well,” Stegall said. “I suspect [we] Collectively, as a team, we have a really good season ahead of us. Our goals are to win [our] conference, but I really think it’s always about always being supportive and, as we like to say, making every meetup a home meetup. We have a lot of people traveling to cheer each other on and their teammates. So I think this season is about doing well, being a good teammate, and helping others do well. “I’m excited to see where it goes.”