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Displaying items by tag: track & field

Thursday, 21 March 2019 13:04

Grace O'Reilly: Athlete of the Week

Photos provided.

SARATOGA SPRINGS — Saratoga Catholic’s Junior athlete Grace O’Reilly takes the values instilled in her at home onto the playing fields.

“I grew up in a family of three kids…both my parents played sports in high school. It’s in the family,” said O’Reilly.

O’Reilly participates in cross-country, track and field, volleyball, basketball and softball. Her father is also the Varsity coach for Spa Catholic’s softball team, of which both O’Reilly and her sister are players for.

Sometimes being the coach’s kid isn’t easy as the standards her father sets for her at home are also expected of her on the field.

“He (her father) knows me at home, so he knows the potential I have in the sports that I play, so he pushes me that much harder,” said O’ Reilly. “He does it with my sister, also. He knows our potential and he wants us to succeed.”

After some deliberation, O’Reilly would say that Yankee’s Derek Jeter would be her favorite athlete because she believes him to be a humble as well as a phenomenal athlete.

“He reminds me of the morals in my family, which are faith, courage, and strength. My dad has engraved that into the family - into our daily lives,” said O’Reilly.

Faith, courage, and strength are certainly at the forefront of the O’Reilly family’s minds, and it is evident in the way 17-year-old O’Reilly believes her parents to be the biggest inspiration in sports and in life.

“They’re (her parents) both constantly working and providing for us. They take time out of their day to make sure that we’re okay, to make sure that we’re happy. Even if they’re not happy.”

O’Reilly’s favorite sport is volleyball, and it’s because she enjoys being an independent part of a team, where each player has their part to assist each other in reaching an overall success.

Much like on a sports team, a family operates the same way. O’Reilly notices that balancing school work and sports can be challenging, but with her family's support, she is able to flourish.

“My family supports me a lot so they can tell when I’m feeling down and they’ll say ‘hey, you need a mental day, or you need to not go to practice.”

For O’Reilly, family and fitness are one in the same. She hopes to continue to be a part of teams through college.

Published in Sports

Fastest in the Nation

Sophomore Kelsey Chmiel set yet another record in the 3K event. Photo by Photoandgraphic.com.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – There might not be any records left to break in the near future if Kelsey Chmiel continues at her current pace.

Competing in the 77th Annual William F. Eddy Meet at Schenectady High School on May 20 alongside 11 other Saratoga athletes, Chmiel, a sophomore, competed in the 3,000-meter race event, finishing with a dominant 9 minutes and 18.09 seconds, putting up the best time in the country for the spring 2017 season so far as well as setting the sophomore girls national record in the event. As one might expect, a performance that put national records to shame also left her competition on the day in the dust, as her closest competitor, Burnt Hills senior Eva Scott, finished the race close to a minute and a whole lap behind her at 10 minutes and 9.66 seconds. This was Chmiel’s third year competing at the Eddy Meet.

This performance continues Chmiel’s recent streak of standout performances and broken records. Back in March, at the 2017 New Balance Nationals Indoor national-level track & field event, Chmiel competed in the 2-mile event and ended up with a time of 10 minutes and 12.94 seconds, besting the state record and narrowly edging out the national record as well. Just a little before that, at the NYSPHSAA State Championships, Chmiel set the previous record in the 3,000-meter event for sophomores. At least year’s Eddy Meet, she set the all-time record for the 1,500-meter event in Section II with a time of 4 minutes 23.81 seconds, and also put up a time of 9 minutes and 48.25 seconds in the 3,000-meter race, a time she would best by over 30 seconds just one year later.

“It makes me excited,” Chmiel said about her collection of record-breaking runs. “But I think it also makes me work harder... I’m just gonna keep working at practice and hopefully lower my times.”

“She’s very competitive, she’s very analytical,” assistant coach Linda Kranick said of Chmiel’s consistently excellent performance. “I think this is the fourth national sophomore record she’s broken this school year... Kelsey has high aspirations, and works very hard.”

Kranick, who has been coaching track & field for 37 years and has coached with husband Art Kranick at Saratoga Springs High School since 1985, reckons that Chmiel is one of the best runners she has worked with in her career, if not the best, given her consistent record-breaking performances. Some of this she attributes to the advances in coaching techniques over the years that have allowed them to train faster and faster athletes, but it mostly comes down to Chmiel’s hard work and innate talents.

“Kelsey is very humble, very modest,” Kranick said. “And she understands that she has even farther to go.”

Elsewhere at the meet, senior Mimi Liebers bested the competition to finish first in the 100-meter hurdles event. Liebers will be competing in track and field at the College of the Holy Cross in the fall.

Published in Sports