Now or never.

“This has been the message to our kids all year,” said Sheffield track coach Jason Snell. “Five years of building a program and being in a position to win it four different times. So close so many times. Now or never, and they did it. They believed, and they did it.”

In a weather-shortened tri-meet on Monday at Wolverine Mountain, the Sheffield boys track and field team finished its perfect season with a 63-37 victory over Smethport and 75-25 win over Cameron County on Senior Day.

Junior Aamond Bowman was huge for the Wolverines, winning all three jumping events. The high jump (5-foot-8), long (18-3), and triple (38-4) on wet and rainy surfaces.

Senior Colby Barr was the overall winner in the 100 meters with a time of 11.50 seconds. Barr was also the anchor of the winning 4×100 relay that hasn’t lost a race this year (with teammates Jack Chapman, Cayden Davis, and Hayden Holden) with a winning time of 46.84.

In a fast 400, Smethport’s Justin Dunn edged Barr at the finish line with a winning time of 53.24, but right on their heels was Sheffield sophomore Chase Fetzeck taking third at 53.96, punching his ticket to the District 9 Championships in Brookville.

The magic continued with the Lady Wolverines, needing one victory to pass a 21-year-old school record for wins.

The record stood at five, which they had previously tied. The ladies dropped a heartbreaker to Cameron County (who they had previously beaten), 48-50, but defeated Smethport, 64-35, for the school mark (6-5 overall). It’s the Sheffield girls’ first winning season since 2004z

The Lady Wolverines had a couple District 9 Championship qualifiers of their own. Sarah Hoffman, running against some tough competition in the 100 hurdles, used it to punch her ticket with a time of 16.55, and she was also a member of the winning 4×100 relay team with teammates Tymber Barr, Dajayna Thomas, and Madison Snell as anchor. Their winning time of 54.43 not only qualified them for the District 9 Championships, but is just 0.9 seconds from the school record with three more cracks at it.

A senior, Hoffman was also the overall winner in the 300 hurdles with a winning time of 53.81.

“For a wet and rainy evening, some didn’t get their best times, but others surely did,” said Coach Snell. “Not competing in almost two weeks due to cancellations made some of us really hungry today, especially those that rode the bus all the way to North East Saturday to learn their fate of the meet being called 20 minutes before arrival. We were so bummed. We had so many seeded so well Saturday and it was so disappointing. We have used so much adversity this season as motivation between the school closing and every other meet being canceled, and being stuck indoors all of the time, but it didn’t stop us, it only made us stronger.

“Living in Sheffield my entire life, all I have ever wanted to see was the look on a team of Sheffield kids’ faces being crowned champions,” he said. “Though lighting sped up the departures tonight and we didn’t know the official scores yet, I can’t wait to see these kids tomorrow.”

Tying the boys’ school record for wins as well, Sheffield is 11-0 and finishes 9-0 in the NTL.

“You talk about storybook endings, but they have been fantasy until now,” said Coach Snell. “What we lived this season, and so many years leading up to this, I couldn’t have written it any better.”

Sheffield will return to Wolverine Mountain once more on Thursday, hosting the annual Warren County Track Meet.

“They would also like to invite anybody and everybody to join them after the conclusion of the meet on the track for what they are calling a ‘community last lap,'” said Snell. “We would love for all the schools, their parents, coaches, fans, whomever, to celebrate Sheffield for one last time, and begin that bridge into a new future for us all.”