Mimi McCann ’13: At the Delaware Valley Girls’ Track Coaches’ Association meet at Haverford College on January 11th, the girls winter track 4x400m relay, comprised of Keri Boyce ’13, Kelly Szafara ’13, Leigh Adelizzi ’15 and Tara Boyle ’15, qualified for both the Pennsylvania State Championship meet and the National Indoor Championships.
Together, the four girls ran a time of 4:07.50, surpassing the minimum qualifying time for the State Championship meet by nearly four seconds.
Szafara recounted, “We weren’t really running to qualify for nationals. We were running to qualify for states.” She explained, “The nationals time was four seconds faster than the states time… and we just happened to run four seconds faster than our goal time to qualify.”
The Episcopal relay came in second place overall at the meet, right after a team that had already qualified for nationals earlier in the season.
Boyle explained, “No one from EA has ever had this opportunity before.” This is the first time any member of an Episcopal girls track team has qualified for a national championship meet. “It’s a really big honor to compete in such a prestigious event,” Boyle noted.
Individually, each of the four girls was a standout member of the track team last year. However, they were rarely grouped together in the same relay team.
This year, Boyce, Szafara, Adelizzi and Boyle ran together in the 4x400m relay in a combination that not only shattered the school 4x400m record by nearly three seconds, but also qualified them for the most prestigious meet in high school winter track.
As Boyle expressed, the Episcopal winter track program has made a lot of adjustments to its training regimen this year, evidently translating into greater success than ever before. “The workouts have been vigorous all year,” Boyle recalled.
Szafara explained, “Coming from last year… we knew that we had a lot of potential this year. Last year Leigh and Tara were only freshmen so this year they were much more experienced and ready for the season.”
Boyle agreed, noting “I think we get faster each year, and last year as a freshman I was pretty inexperienced. This year we all have more experience and knowledge about the sport.”
States will be held at Pennsylvania State University, University Park on February 23rd and Nationals will be at the Armory in New York City on March 8th.
Szafara commented, “We have a shot at doing really well at states. I don’t know how well we will do at nationals, because it’s such a huge meet, but just the fact that we qualified is really exciting.”
Episcopal Academy