Growing up in Hopedale Ben Stone enjoyed playing baseball and soccer and although he liked taking part in the sports, he really loved the part where he had to run.

“My dad was a runner and he told me that it was fun and since I enjoyed running in my two sports I gave it a shot during the winter of seventh grade,” Stone said. “I started out slow with the sprints, found out that I got into it pretty quickly and I was one of the better seventh grade runners.”

Stone quickly realized that running is such a different experience to the other sports that he was taking part in. Running for Hopedale he noted that he was part of a team, but one in which you are running against yourself.

Although only a seventh grader on the high school team he was not intimidated by the older athletes, in fact he found the juniors and seniors to be welcoming and willing to help him in any way that they could.

It was around the second week of the season when Coach Joe Drugan approached Stone after watching him during spring drills; the ensuing conversation totally change Stones future.

“Coach Drugan pulled me aside and after telling me that I was fast, asked me what other sports I did,” Stone recalls. “After telling him baseball and soccer he told me not any more – you’re running track from here on out. It was the best decision of my life.”

Drugan noted that he saw a blazing speed in the young runner and knew that he could get him to improve.

“He is an all-around runner, probably the best 800 m runner I have ever seen,” the Hopedale Coach said. “Since getting here in seventh grade he has improved so much. He goes out and does his job and does it the right way. He’s become tough to beat.”

Stone did note that while Drugan can be a little crazy, he has the best intention at heart and when he takes an interest in a runner, t’s for good reason.

Following his first winter season, Stone continued with the spring team where he would qualify for the middle school state tournament I the 100 and 200-meter dash. And if running two seasons of track wasn’t enough, he soon found out that cross country was just another reason to run.

“I came home one day to find out that my mother had signed me up to take part in a 5K,” Stone said. “I went out and won my race in my age group and found that I loved running the 5k so the next fall I joined the cross-country team.”

Over the next two years Stone began to carve a name out for himself. In the mile he has run a 4:36, a personal best and the fastest time on the team. Stone has also out up personal best times in the 400 (0:56). the 800 (2:06) and the 2-mile (10:32), while being named to all the Dual Valley Conference (DVC) All Star team in all three seasons. Stone also has broken the school record in the 1500-meter with a time of 4:27 taking 11 seconds off the previous record. While he finds his overall times to be good, Stone firmly believes that there is always room for improvement.

This year as a sophomore he took home the DVC Championship in the mile and 1000-meter during the winter season and captured the Championship in both the mile and 2-mile event during the outdoor season and did so in amazing fashion. Stone had to run the 2-mile first and knew that with the teams best runner (Ben Powell) out he had to pick up the slack to help the team.

“It was nerve racking, but I knew the guy who was the best runner in this event and decided to just stay with him the whole race,” he said. “When it came down to the end I just outsprinted him for the win.”

After winning the DVC 2-mile Championship Stone had a mere 15 minutes to catch his breath and regroup before he was to run the mile.

“I went into that race giving it everything that I had although I was so tired at that point. I just kept thinking that I had to keep going, I had to cross that finish line,” he said. “To win the mile was a great feeling, but one that was so crazy. I never thought that I could do something like this two or three years ago when I was first starting out.”

Coming into this year, his sophomore campaign, Stone knew that he had some big sneakers to fill as it would be the first year for Hopedale without the talented Jackson Hunt running and earning points for the Blue Raiders. Having captured the DVC Titles, Stone is getting ready to take his running onto the State Tournament stage where he will participate in a relay and the mile representing Hopedale.

With still another two years of running all three seasons for the Blue Raiders Stone is hoping that he can break 16 minutes in the 5K and below 4 minutes in the mile.

“I am currently at 16:56 in the 5k and the way my times have been decreasing consistently over the years I should be able to get to a sub-16-minute time,” he said. “As for the mile it will be difficult, but I am going to try. I know that I can get it at least to 4:20, but I am going to work hard, train and push my body to the max.”

Although Stone still has two more years remaining at Hopedale to take part in another 6 seasons of cross country and track he definitely wants to continue to run following high school. Stone is hoping that his talents take him to a Division 1 College where he can continue to run as far as his body will allow him to go. He knows that he has just finished his sophomore year and has time for colleges to approach him in the future. They way that he has been running, it shouldn’t be too long before colleges are reaching out to him to come run for their program.