Stanley Lagrenande - Nyack - 2002
Once Stanley Lagrenade made the transition from pure sprinter to middle distance runner, he never looked back en route to a stellar four-year career for the Nyack Indians. A trackman since middle school days, he played football, wrestled and ran track his freshman year, showing glimpses of his promise with an eighth-place finish in the state championships at 400 meters. After suffered his second dislocated shoulder playing football in the fall of his sophomore year, Stanley spent the winter rehabbing and preparing for spring track. Still sticking with sprints, he again qualified for States and improved to fourth place in the 400, clocking an excellent 48.92.
Initially reluctant to move up in distance, Stanley eventually embraced Coach Miles Taylor’s plan to tackle the training necessary to excel at the 600 and 800 meters. “Miles is truly the mastermind when it came to my transition” to middle distance, Stanley says. “I’d always had more strength than speed for most of my life but it was Miles who convinced me that my strength was my biggest asset.” At Taylor’s urging, Stanley gave up football and ran cross country his junior year, developing the strength base necessary to endure the tough stamina-building workouts to follow in winter and spring track. “My transition to the 800 was smooth because of my confidence in my speed and my newfound cross country strength,” notes Stanley, who was team MVP and All-League in the hills-and-trails harrier sport that fall.
Taking to the 600 “like a duck to water,” in Taylor’s words, Stanley broke the school 600-yard record in 1:15.9 during his junior indoor track campaign. He then scored a major upset at the State Qualifier, outracing Suffern’s more-heralded sprint star, Chris Lolagne, a fellow Hall of Famer, in a sizzling 600-meter school-record time of 1:22.2. Stanley advanced to the State meet and finished a solid third in the 600, as well as ninth in the 300. In the spring, he continued his ascension with a second-place finish at States in the 400, and anchored Nyack’s 4x800-meter relay to a school-record 8:05.0 at the Nationals in North Carolina and an eighth-place showing at the State meet. One of his most memorable races that spring came at the State Qualifier 4x800 race, when he ran down Pearl River ace Brendan Fennell with a 1:54.2 anchor split and out-leaned him at the tape to give the Indians the victory and their first trip to States in that event.
Senior year brought a health setback in the form of pneumonia during the winter season, short-circuiting Stanley’s goal of a State title at 600 meters. He had swept the County meet 300 and 600 and the League 55, 300 and 600 prior to contracting the illness. Nonetheless, he rebounded strongly in the spring and set his sights on performing well in the championship meets. At his first major invitational of the season, the Red Raider Relays, Stanley announced his comeback in a big way: first place, 800 meters, 1:53.8, the fastest time in the state to that point and worthy of Athlete of the Meet honors. “That was the springboard to launch his season,” Taylor says.
The wow factor in Stanley’s pacing tactics really emerged in his next major challenge, the Loucks Games 800. “Stanley wasn’t your traditional 800-meter runner,” Taylor explains. “Most would go out and settle on a pace, then rely on a monster kick. Stan was different. He would run a blistering first 400 and dare anyone to go with him, then his strength would finish them off.” Stanley followed that strategy to the letter at Loucks, bolting out in 52-point for the first 400 and hanging on for the triumph against a marquee field in 1:52.4, fifth-fastest in the country to that point, and earning him the coveted “Olympian” trophy he had yearned for since sophomore year. “I remember telling myself just to relax and compete because win or lose, I was about to drop a big PR,” Stanley recalls. “When I crossed the finish line, I looked up in the stands and Miles was screaming like a crazy person in excitement and was barreling down the hill to give me a hug. I remember saying, ‘We did it, pops!’ and he said, ‘No, you did it!’”
Stanley’s blue-chip senior season continued with a 400-800 sweep at both the County and Section 1 Class B meets, the latter with a sparkling 48.4 400, a top-10 all-time Rockland mark. When an invitation came to compete in the national-caliber Golden West Invitational in California, which was on the same weekend as the State meet, Stanley chose to head west and challenge the top 800-meter runners in the country. The decision yielded sizable dividends: a silver-medal performance and a crackling 1:52.1 clocking, No. 6 all-time in Rockland. Stanley concluded the season with the County’s fastest times in the 200, 21.9; 400, 48.4; and 800, 1:52.1, and was named Rockland male Athlete of the Season.
An excellent student-athlete, Stanley received a full athletic scholarship to attend Georgetown University and excelled for the Hoyas in the long sprints and middle distances. He relished his running career in college, highlighted by the excitement and competitive fervor of the Penn Relays. During his freshman year at the Relays, Stanley led off Georgetown’s defending-champion 4x800 relay in 1:50, then came back less than an hour later to post a personal-best 400 split of 46.6 on the 4x400. Equally important to Stanley, Coach Taylor was in the stands that day to witness his superlative relay carries.
“Miles had one of the most profound impacts on me as a person and an athlete during my time at Nyack,” says Stanley, a native of Haiti whose family came to Nyack when he was 5. “He always told me that he cared more about ‘Stan the person’ than he did about ‘Stan the runner.’ I was more than just one of his runners and more like a son to him, which is why I always called him ‘pops.’ He helped me in every aspect of my life growing up, and to this day, he remains one of the most influential people in my life.”
After graduating from Georgetown with a bachelor’s in sociology in 2006, Stanley pursued a master’s in public policy while serving as a full-time assistant coach for the Hoyas for three years, in charge of the men’s middle distance unit, sprinters of both genders, and also handling recruiting. When his roommate told him about an opening in the software company where he worked, Stanley dropped his plans to attend law school and instead started a career in the computer technology field. For the past three years Stanley, who is 33, has worked as a project manager for Decision Lens, a software development company based in northern Virginia. He has lived in Washington, D.C., since graduating from Georgetown. Stanley’s parents, Jean and Danielle, and brother Dudley, another former Nyack trackman, still live in Nyack, and his sister, Ashley, attends college at La Salle University.
“Stanley was not just a star athlete, but he also excelled in the classroom and in life,” Coach Taylor says. “Stanley put Nyack on the national stage and represented his family, school, community, and coaches with great pride and dignity.”
Initially reluctant to move up in distance, Stanley eventually embraced Coach Miles Taylor’s plan to tackle the training necessary to excel at the 600 and 800 meters. “Miles is truly the mastermind when it came to my transition” to middle distance, Stanley says. “I’d always had more strength than speed for most of my life but it was Miles who convinced me that my strength was my biggest asset.” At Taylor’s urging, Stanley gave up football and ran cross country his junior year, developing the strength base necessary to endure the tough stamina-building workouts to follow in winter and spring track. “My transition to the 800 was smooth because of my confidence in my speed and my newfound cross country strength,” notes Stanley, who was team MVP and All-League in the hills-and-trails harrier sport that fall.
Taking to the 600 “like a duck to water,” in Taylor’s words, Stanley broke the school 600-yard record in 1:15.9 during his junior indoor track campaign. He then scored a major upset at the State Qualifier, outracing Suffern’s more-heralded sprint star, Chris Lolagne, a fellow Hall of Famer, in a sizzling 600-meter school-record time of 1:22.2. Stanley advanced to the State meet and finished a solid third in the 600, as well as ninth in the 300. In the spring, he continued his ascension with a second-place finish at States in the 400, and anchored Nyack’s 4x800-meter relay to a school-record 8:05.0 at the Nationals in North Carolina and an eighth-place showing at the State meet. One of his most memorable races that spring came at the State Qualifier 4x800 race, when he ran down Pearl River ace Brendan Fennell with a 1:54.2 anchor split and out-leaned him at the tape to give the Indians the victory and their first trip to States in that event.
Senior year brought a health setback in the form of pneumonia during the winter season, short-circuiting Stanley’s goal of a State title at 600 meters. He had swept the County meet 300 and 600 and the League 55, 300 and 600 prior to contracting the illness. Nonetheless, he rebounded strongly in the spring and set his sights on performing well in the championship meets. At his first major invitational of the season, the Red Raider Relays, Stanley announced his comeback in a big way: first place, 800 meters, 1:53.8, the fastest time in the state to that point and worthy of Athlete of the Meet honors. “That was the springboard to launch his season,” Taylor says.
The wow factor in Stanley’s pacing tactics really emerged in his next major challenge, the Loucks Games 800. “Stanley wasn’t your traditional 800-meter runner,” Taylor explains. “Most would go out and settle on a pace, then rely on a monster kick. Stan was different. He would run a blistering first 400 and dare anyone to go with him, then his strength would finish them off.” Stanley followed that strategy to the letter at Loucks, bolting out in 52-point for the first 400 and hanging on for the triumph against a marquee field in 1:52.4, fifth-fastest in the country to that point, and earning him the coveted “Olympian” trophy he had yearned for since sophomore year. “I remember telling myself just to relax and compete because win or lose, I was about to drop a big PR,” Stanley recalls. “When I crossed the finish line, I looked up in the stands and Miles was screaming like a crazy person in excitement and was barreling down the hill to give me a hug. I remember saying, ‘We did it, pops!’ and he said, ‘No, you did it!’”
Stanley’s blue-chip senior season continued with a 400-800 sweep at both the County and Section 1 Class B meets, the latter with a sparkling 48.4 400, a top-10 all-time Rockland mark. When an invitation came to compete in the national-caliber Golden West Invitational in California, which was on the same weekend as the State meet, Stanley chose to head west and challenge the top 800-meter runners in the country. The decision yielded sizable dividends: a silver-medal performance and a crackling 1:52.1 clocking, No. 6 all-time in Rockland. Stanley concluded the season with the County’s fastest times in the 200, 21.9; 400, 48.4; and 800, 1:52.1, and was named Rockland male Athlete of the Season.
An excellent student-athlete, Stanley received a full athletic scholarship to attend Georgetown University and excelled for the Hoyas in the long sprints and middle distances. He relished his running career in college, highlighted by the excitement and competitive fervor of the Penn Relays. During his freshman year at the Relays, Stanley led off Georgetown’s defending-champion 4x800 relay in 1:50, then came back less than an hour later to post a personal-best 400 split of 46.6 on the 4x400. Equally important to Stanley, Coach Taylor was in the stands that day to witness his superlative relay carries.
“Miles had one of the most profound impacts on me as a person and an athlete during my time at Nyack,” says Stanley, a native of Haiti whose family came to Nyack when he was 5. “He always told me that he cared more about ‘Stan the person’ than he did about ‘Stan the runner.’ I was more than just one of his runners and more like a son to him, which is why I always called him ‘pops.’ He helped me in every aspect of my life growing up, and to this day, he remains one of the most influential people in my life.”
After graduating from Georgetown with a bachelor’s in sociology in 2006, Stanley pursued a master’s in public policy while serving as a full-time assistant coach for the Hoyas for three years, in charge of the men’s middle distance unit, sprinters of both genders, and also handling recruiting. When his roommate told him about an opening in the software company where he worked, Stanley dropped his plans to attend law school and instead started a career in the computer technology field. For the past three years Stanley, who is 33, has worked as a project manager for Decision Lens, a software development company based in northern Virginia. He has lived in Washington, D.C., since graduating from Georgetown. Stanley’s parents, Jean and Danielle, and brother Dudley, another former Nyack trackman, still live in Nyack, and his sister, Ashley, attends college at La Salle University.
“Stanley was not just a star athlete, but he also excelled in the classroom and in life,” Coach Taylor says. “Stanley put Nyack on the national stage and represented his family, school, community, and coaches with great pride and dignity.”