TOWNSHIP OF WASHINGTON—Congratulations to Westwood Regional High School Senior Connor Munson, who was accepted with well-deserved fanfare into the United States Air Force Academy.
At his signing ceremony, at the high school on March 4, Connor, of Westwood, posed for photos — pen in hand — and said he was honored to have the opportunity to serve his country.
The agreement he signed reads, “Given that I have been granted this Certificate of Intent to attend the United States Air Force Academy beginning with the 2022-23 academic year, I, Connor Payne Munson, agree to enroll at the United States Air Force Academy and compete on the Academy’s NCAA Division I Track & Field team.
“I understand that this agreement is dependent on me being granted an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy beginning with the 2022-23 academic year, and I must meet all U.S. Air Force Academy admissions requirements and Department of Defense medical qualifications, as well as being granted a Congressional or equal nomination.
“I, Ralph Lindeman, Head Track & Field Coach at the United States Air Force Academy, agree to provide Connor Payne Munson with the opportunity to compete on the Air Force Academy’s intercollegiate Track & Field team for the 2022-23 season and beyond, provided he successfully completes all eligibility requirements set forth by the NCAA, Mountain West Conference and the U.S. Air Force Academy.”
Connor’s mom, Stacey Price-Munson, told Pascack Press at the ceremony — where the anthem of the U.S. Air Force played — that Connor comes from a family that well values service.
In his immediate family, grandfather Harry “Bud” Munson served in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam; grandfather Richard Price served in the U.S. Navy in WWII; step-grandfather Daniel Decker served in the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam; uncle Richard Scott Price was a U.S. Marine in Operation Desert Storm; and brother Stephen P. Munson attended Army ROTC/Virginia Military Institute.
Connor told Pascack Press he will miss his high school graduation because he reports for in-processing the same day. He also said he’d worked hard to get to this point and deeply appreciated everyone who helped him along the way.
When it was suggested he was a role model for other young people in the community, he said, “Well, I don’t really see it that way. I just put in a lot of hard work.”
A representative of U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-5) office was at the ceremony as well; she said Gottheimer would acknowledge Connor personally at a district service day event. Gottheimer lauded Connor, of Westwood Boy Scout Troop 350, in 2021 at the annual Fifth District Scout Honor Ceremony.
One to watch
As the Record and others have long observed, Connor is one of the nation’s top pentathlete/decathletes and has the moniker “King of the Multi-Events in Bergen County” and ranks among the all-time greats in state history.
His resume is weighty with sports distinctions and honors, and it describes excellence in academics, community service/volunteerism, and leadership.
There’s the Boy Scouts; National Honor Society; New Jersey State Seal of Biliteracy in French; honor society memberships in mathematics, science, and French; FBLA; Venture Crew. It goes on.
His hobbies are outgoing: self-taught guitar, singing, rifle and shotgun shooting, and spikeball.
He told MileSplitNJ this time last year that the COVID-19 pandemic had prevented him from competing the previous spring. “At first, I kept running, I kept doing workouts. However after we found out that all the big national and international meets were cancelled, I lost focus and didn’t feel like I would be training towards anything so I stopped for about a month. I didn’t feel like the training would be worth it. However, as soon as Dave at High Intensity Track in Fairfield decided to reopen, I regained the wind in my sails.”
He said “At the beginning of the lockdown I was running about 3 miles every day and doing calisthenics training to keep my strength. In May, I stopped training because of the headspace I was in. After I got back in the right headspace in June, I simply did not stop training.”
Asked how he decided to pursue multi-event stardom, he explained, “When I was 11 years old, I didn’t qualify for the USATF Regional meet in any individual events. Since my brother, Stephen, did qualify and the multi-events automatically advance to the regional meet, my mother didn’t want me to be bored, so she entered me in the pentathlon because I already did most of the events. Ever since, I have been doing the multis.”
He explained that “Before high school, I competed for the Roadrunner’s Elite Track and Field program. I started in kindergarten when I was 5. I did many sports like football, basketball and lacrosse, but in seventh grade I decided to purely focus on track.”
He said he finds training and competition “so much fun despite it being so physically taxing and demanding. However, I believe the toughest part about being a decathlete is compartmentalizing one’s emotions during a competition. For example, if I do poorly in one event, I can’t allow that to interfere with the rest of my competition.”
Connor added, “Being a decathlete is the ultimate test of athleticism in track and field. …What I love the most is the friendships made during the decathlon.”
He said his greatest strength as a track and field athlete is “My determination to always go 100%. If you’re not giving your workout 100%, you’re not improving.”