Athlete of the Week: Atticus Stonestrom
Senior Atticus Stonestrom first started running in middle school, at the encouragement of his father. What started as leisurely runs once every few weeks eventually turned into a deep passion for running. “Though I was fairly unathletic at the time, I really enjoyed the time we spent plodding away out on the roads,” he said.
When Stonestrom came to Exeter as a new lower, he knew he had to try out for the boys’ cross country team. “From the beginning of my first season, I fell in love with the sport. The team, the coaches, the competition and the purity of running were incomparable to me,” Stonestrom recalled.
Stonestrom described running for the cross country and spring track teams as a defining aspect of his time at Exeter. During his first season, he looked up to Quincy Tichenor ’15 and Holden Hammontree ’15 as his role models, citing their athleticism, swiftness, confidence, competitiveness and care for the rest of the team as inspirational.
Stonestrom also emphasized his admiration for his two coaches, Brandon Newbould and Nicholas Unger. “[Coach Newbould is] the backbone of our success as a team, and the relationship that I’ve developed with him over time, both as a student and a friend, has truly shaped my experience at Exeter, in athletics and beyond,” he said. Stonestrom described Unger as a coach who carries on the tradition and team culture of Exeter cross country. He also credited Unger as a key player in his development as a runner.
Senior Garrett Pitt, fellow track co-captain, has helped Stonestrom grow athletically during his time as Exeter. “Since winter of last year we’ve been nearly inseparable in training, running essentially all of our workouts and races together,” he said. “Every step of the way, we’ve been right there with each other.”
Pitt commented on Stonestrom’s impact on his own running career. “It’s great having someone who pushes me in races and workouts,” Pitt said, continuing to elaborate on their close friendship and connection. “He’s a person with whom I can share anything, and one who was made my time at Exeter infinitely more enjoyable and meaningful.”
Pitt also admires Stonestrom’s athletic abilities, describing his appearance as a deceptive one. “You look at [Atticus] and think there’s no way he could do sports,” Pitt explained. “Then you see him scamper up and down the hills of Scamman’s Farm and are left wondering how anyone could do that so quickly and with such apparent ease.”
As a co-captain, Pitt finds in Stonestrom a unique, humorous approach of leading the team. “I think Atticus brings a sense of humility,” Pitt said. “He works hard and seems always to find a way to illicit a laugh from the people he runs with.”
Lower Sebastian Bango, a new member of the cross country team, echoed Pitt’s statements, commenting on Stonestrom’s amazing athleticism. “He is a very relaxed runner,” Bango said. “Atticus runs with ease.” Bango continued to describe Stonestrom’s incredible dedication to the sport, detailing his commitment to training outside of practice and his focus on trying to better himself as a runner. “He seems like a guy who truly loves running,” he added.
Stonestrom is also familiar with some of the less pleasurable aspects of running. “After my initial cross country season, during winter track, I was introduced to the gritty side of training,” he explained. Stonestrom commented on the stamina he had to acquire in order to face challenges such as poor races, brutal workouts and sickness and injury. However, he emphasized that his love for running has never wavered. “Though I’ve had my fair share of difficulties, I wouldn’t trade my cross country and track experiences for anything,” he said.
Stonestrom recalled a particularly bittersweet moment of his running career: the cross country championship of 2015. He went into the season with high hopes after a summer of solid training, but then, during preseason, broke his ankle on a run in Pawtuckaway State Park. After recovering for a month, Stonestrom tried to regain his strength for Interschols, cross-training extensively throughout the season on the elliptical and in the pool. “Going into the race, I knew that we all needed to perform at our best to pull of a fifth consecutive title,” he said. However, in the span of 17 minutes, Exeter placed third and broke the winning streak. “Though I was relieved to have placed for the team, I felt I simply hadn’t done enough,” Stonestrom said.
After this year’s win at Interschols, Stonestrom felt much better about his ability as a runner. “Reclaiming the fame and winning the race both as a team and as an individual was overwhelming,” Stonestrom said. He continued to describe the pride he felt in carrying on the legacy of Exeter distance running. “It was the culmination of years of tough training [and] devastating disappointment.”
With regards to the future, Stonestrom is enthusiastic about watching the team develop this year and further on. “We have an incredibly strong lower class this year, and quite a few talented and dedicated uppers as well,” he said. While Stonestrom admires several other teams from schools in the New England area, he highlighted his confidence in the strength and depth of Exeter’s team. “I know that we’ll be leaving the team in capable hands at the end of the year.”