On Wednesday, April 20, 2016, Wissahickon senior Darien Williams was recognized for committing to continue his track career at Penn State University. To view photos of the event, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Darien Williams – Penn State University (Track)
Academic honors: 3.98 GPA, French Nationals Honors Society, Suburban One League Scholarship
Athletic accomplishments: Outstanding Track Award, second team All-SOL American Conference 100m, 
second team All-SOL American Conference 200m, Honorable Mention All-State 100m, Second Team All-State 4x200 Relay, school record 200m (21.55), Indoor school record 200m (22.11), sophomore class record (21.94), number two all-time at Wissahickon in 100m (10.64, fastest auto-timed 100 in school history. 10.54 school record was a hand held time of 10.3 converted to auto by adding .24), member of school record 4x200 relay (1:27.51) and indoor school record 4x200 relay (1:29.88), Captain of track and soccer teams.
Coach Don Betterly says: “Darien has a great work ethic. He was a team leader and improved consistently from year to year. Darien was an okay sprinter as a freshman, but it wasn’t until the indoor season of his sophomore year - we had a really good athlete, Dave Stellato, who was a 47-second quarter miler. We had a time trial in the dome in December, and I put Darien in with Dave and another kid that was pretty good, and he finished literally three or four feet behind (Stellato) in the 400. I thought, ‘This kid is really going to be something.’
“His junior year he got third in states in the 100 meters, and what was great about Darien is we would lay out a game plan for him on what events he would run in the season. We had the luxury of having some meets where we didn’t have to put our best kids in our best events and still won our dual meets. In some meets, he would run two 400s just for strength work. He would run the open 400 and then come back in the 4x400. He knew full well that was going to pay off at the end when he was going to be running in the postseason. He really did whatever he had to do in that respect, and he always ran exactly what I told him to do. The workouts were always quality. He helped the other kids along quite a bit. He was really that glue that held the 4x400 and 4x100 relay teams together.
“The other thing was he sacrificed the 200, which he also could have medaled high in. He had the second fastest time in the state going into districts, and he didn’t run it because we had the two relays. Knowing when it came to states, he couldn’t do everything, so he opted to sacrifice the 200 and help the other guys along on the relays. It has been a privilege to work with him. He’s going to be missed.”
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