Through It All "The Stephs" Stuck Together
Scott Day
5/6/2020
Silence. Tears. Confusion.
Like thousands of student-athletes across the country, those were just some of the emotions senior Stephanie Bazan felt after a March 13 team meeting in which she learned her final season as a member of the University of Delaware track & field program had been cancelled.
“When our final track season was cancelled, I was honestly devastated. Leaving the sport in the best shape of my life, I couldn’t help but feel like those 70-mile weeks were going to waste since I wouldn’t get the chance to race the 10ks I had been training months for,” Bazan said.
But like she had for the past three-plus years, Bazan turned to her teammate and best friend Stephanie Palese, another senior on the Blue Hens track & field team.
“It took a few (or many) days and runs, but a heart-to-heart with Steph really helped change my perspective,” Bazan said. “We have learned so much from our team and our sport that I know we will put into practice every day for the rest of our lives.”
After the seasons were cancelled and classes were moved online, Palese and Bazan faced a decision, return to their homes or remain in their off-campus housing and spend their final semester in Newark.
“As seniors, knowing this was our final few months in this place we’ve loved for the past four years, we wanted to enjoy our last moments of our undergraduate careers in the same place that we started,” Palese said. “With so much changing all at once we decided we weren’t yet ready to give up the rest of our time in Newark, and we knew if we stayed here we would have each other to lean on during this difficult time. We made a promise to each other that we would make the most of our last semester, even with everything going on in the world.”
And for the past two months, that’s exactly what the duo has done.
“We are still running every day and incorporating new kinds of strength workouts ((Strength) Coach Raz (Rasnake) would be proud!). Steph and I have always been high mileage runners, and we are really enjoying spending this time doing what feels right in the moment, both physically and mentally. We have also just been enjoying each other's company. We were not able to go home for Easter, so we planned a whole day with each other, which was really nice,” Palese said.
The past two months are the result of a bond that has turned unbreakable through four years of long runs, memories and being there when they both needed each other the most.
“Running has a way of making you vulnerable with people that you may have never opened up to before. We both have challenging majors that often resulted in class conflicts, so we became workout partners, fitting our high mileage runs into our hectic schedules,” Bazan said. “We started to become close and realized that a lot of our experiences have shaped us in the same way. When you can find someone that understands you on the deepest level, it’s something you hang on to.”
Since arriving on campus in the fall of 2016, the “Stephs”, which grew up about two hours apart (Bazan in Glenwood Landing, N.Y. and Palese in Sewell, N.J.), really became a “package deal” during their time in the Blue & Gold.
“We have been practically inseparable for the past four years, and that has only become more true these past two months. While most are home with their families during these untelling times, we have been leaning on each other for support. We are the type of friends who can be serious with each other and talk about what we are going through when we need a listener or advice. Or we can be the type of friends that take our Zoom classes while we tan in our yard and dance to Dan + Shay,” Bazan said.
This past fall, they were a part of the Blue Hens’ best-ever finish at the Colonial Athletic Association Cross Country Championship, taking second overall. On the track, Delaware was primed and ready to defend their 2019 CAA Track & Field Championship that Bazan and Palese were both a part of last spring.
But now, like so many across the country, the duo is in their final weeks of spring semester wrapping up their college careers. Bazan will graduate with an honors degree in Environmental Engineering and Palese with a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics.
“While it was definitely a hard pill to swallow at first, we have so much to be grateful for over the past four years,” Palese said. “I could not have asked for a better team and coaches, they’ve truly become family to me and will always be that way for the rest of our lives.”
