Fields finds his stride with FSU
Former Ayer Shirley runner aiming high
FITCHBURG » After a yearlong hiatus from competitive training, middle distance runner Trevor Fields began to inch closer to his personal bests after transferring to Fitchburg State University in the fall of 2019.
But just as he was beginning to find his stride last spring, Fields and his Falcon teammates were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last week’s news that there will be a MASCAC track and field season has Fields, an Ayer Shirley Regional alum, aiming to
make a push up the conference rankings after continuing to train hard throughout the shutdown.
“It’s been a while since we had the opportunity to compete,” Fields said. “( With the cross country and indoor season being) taken away, we were skeptical about this season. But we’ve been training on our own for the possibility of this season and I’m thrilled we’re going to have the season.”
As a freshman in 2018-19, Fields ran in the track club at UMass Lowell, but says he wasn’t enjoying the collegiate experience and dropped his training down. He transitioned to Fitchburg State for his sophomore year and returned to running, using the cross country season to get back in shape.
Troughout the course of the 201920 indoor season, his times began to fall, approaching where they’d been during his high school years. The goal was to surpass his bests in the outdoor season, but then the global pandemic halted the effort.
“I trained a lot more this year than I’ve ever trained,” Fields said of his efforts during the down time. “Over the summer, I was pushing myself with a couple kids from the team. This training season has been pretty crazy and we just got back onto the track ( Thursday).”
After hitting the track last week, the junior says this times are where he and his coaches want them to be.
“The times that I was running for practice were a lot faster than I expected,” Fields said. “I’m feeling like I’m in that top physical shape that I want to be back into. I’ve been putting in the work and I’m looking forward to the opportunity.”
Fields is getting a push from Nicholas Sachetta, a classmate who and fellow middle distance runner, with whom he has a strong training bond.
“When I first got here, Sachetta was one of the first people who came up to me and said ‘ hey I run mid-distance also and it’s going to be awesome having you here,’” Fields said. “Honestly, he’s one of the people who’s gotten me back into the shape I am now. We push each other in almost every single workout and have been running together a lot. It’s almost like a little team rivalry, but we always have fun.”
Fitchburg State head coach Jim Jellison has noticed the hard work that Fields put in during the shutdown with his showings in early practices and expects solid results to come to Fields. Jellison said Fields is aiming for a time in the mid-1:50s in the 800 and has a legitimate chance to hit that targert.
“I think his times are going to go down,” Jellison said. “He’s in really good shape and the whole group of mid-distance guys have been working hard. The kids look up to (Fields) because he works hard. He’s a good student, a lead-by-example guy and you want to have a team made up of athletes like that.”