The season’s first cross country notebook features Abington Kelly Jawork and William Tennent’s Evan Hutton.
By DENNY DYROFF
Frequently, teachers and coaches tell young students and athletes that “the sky is the limit.”
But that is not the case for Abington cross country runner Kelly Jawork.
Jawork’s goals take her ’way past the sky.
“I plan on majoring in aerospace engineering in college,” said Jawork, an Abington senior. “I want to be an astronaut. It’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I was little. I have a real passion for math and science – and a huge sense of adventure. I went to a space camp a few years ago at Nastar and that was great. Even if I don’t get selected to be an astronaut, I still want to work for NASA.”
Jawork’s list of potential college choices is impressive – Cornell, Stanford, University of Virginia, Texas A&M, Maryland, Virginia Tech, M.I.T., Princeton and Penn State.
Her academic record supports those choices. She has been on the honor roll all four years and boasts a 4.678 grade point average with a course load that includes all AP classes this year.
In addition to running cross country, indoor track and outdoor track, Jawork also works as a waitress in a pizzeria. And, she also is in the National Honor Society and participates in a number of extracurricular activities.
She is president of A.C.T. – Abington Community Task Foce.
“We perform community service and do fundraising for different beneficiaries,” said Jawork, who is also a member of the Varsity A Spirit Club.
She finds time to participate in Mont-Crash.
“We set up mock crashes prior to prom time to show students the dangers of drinking and driving,” Jawork said. “In my free time, I play piano and hike. I also paint. I work in oils, watercolor and acrylics. I like painting landscapes the best.”
Because of various injuries over the years, Jawork’s running career has not been as consistent as her academic career.
“I first started running in elementary school in a little club and then ran for the school team when I was in junior high,” she said. “As a freshman, I ran for the track team and then continued running.
“With running, my right leg is about an inch shorter than my left leg. I discovered it when I was a sophomore. So, I run on my toes and, because of that, I get hurt a lot. Running on your toes is very stressful on your calves and knees, but it works better for me.
“I was out for a long time in my freshman year because I was running on my toes. Then, I got hurt in cross country last year.”
Jawork not only missed most of the cross country season but also a good portion of the indoor track season.
“But, she came back strong in spring track and finished fifth in the mile at outdoor states,” coach Bill Neely said. “She was injury-prone when she was younger but she’s been running well lately. She just has to be careful. She was always very talented. We just had to keep her healthy. She’s a scholar-athlete who works hard at everything she does. She’s pretty gutsy. She has that desire to win.”
Jawork has already shown her desire to win this season. Two weeks ago, she placed fourth in a highly-competitive field at the Abington Invitational. Last weekend, she won the gold medal in the Championship Race at the Briarwood Invitational at Belmont Plateau in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.
“I really wanted to win the Abington Invitational but I underestimated my competition,” said Jawork. “Some of the girls in the race were among the best in the state. Still, fourth was good. It was the highest finish for an Abington runner at the meet in a long time.
“Winning the Briarwood race was really exciting. Winning it was unexpected. I led from start-to-finish. I was waiting for a girl to come up on me but no-one ever did.”
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High school coaches never recruit athletes from other schools (and, if they did, they would never admit it).
But, there are a lot of coaches who recruit athletes at their own schools – either from other teams or from the list of students who don’t compete in any sport.
William Tennent coach Dave Fries did some in-house recruiting a few years ago and it has paid serious dividends.
Evan Hutton - who picked up a bronze medal at the Centaur Invitational at DeSales College earlier this month and followed with a fourth-place finish in the Championship Race at the Briarwood Invitational - was plucked from the pool of non-competitors by Fries a few years ago.
“Evan is one of the most consistent runners I’ve ever coached,” said Fries. “He should qualify for states again this year.
“A few years ago, Evan was sitting in my ninth grade United States History class. I knew he was a hard worker in school. I told him for weeks that he should come out for cross country.
“I had to twist his arm to get him to come out for the team. Once he did, he fell in love with the sport. He ran spring track as a freshman and then showed a lot of growth in his sophomore season.”
Hutton did need a little convincing when he was a freshman.
“Coach Fries told me that it was a really good team and that I’d be perfect for it because I was a good student – and a hard-working I also ran track in middle school,” he said. “Freshman year, I decided to run spring track. I ran the mile and the 800 so coach thought I’d be interested in running cross country. But, I had reservations about running cross country. I didn’t think I'd like cross country – especially with all the mileage and the dedication it required.
“When sophomore year arrived, I decided to do it. I found out that I liked my teammates and the fact that I’m pretty good at it. I started out okay, and by the end of the season, I had gotten to be pretty good. I have a lot of stamina and I work hard at it.
“Last year, I was running in the 17s at the start of the season. By the end of the season, I had gotten down to the low 16s.”
Hutton qualified for the PIAA Championships after finishing 35th at districts with the cutoff 36th.
“I used every bit of speed I had at the end because I knew how close I was to missing the cut,” Hutton said.
According to Fries, Hutton burst onto the scene last year.
“Especially at the end of the season at the William Tennent Invitational, the Suburban One Championships and the District One Championships, And, he hasn’t slowed down this year,” the Panthers’ coach said.
Hutton is also a standout in school – an honor roll student who plans on majoring in sports management in college. But, he has more immediate goals to take care of first.
“I want to see us qualify for states as a team,” said Hutton. “My individual goals are to be in the top three at leagues and the Top 15 at districts. I also want to be in the Top 25 at states and to break 16:00. I think I’m right where I should be right now.”
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Cross country is different than all the other fall sports in that there is no time for a break once the competition starts. The gun goes off and you run – and you keep running until you cross the finish line.
This year, the sustained temperatures in this area during July and August were the highest since they began keeping records.
Sports teams can adjust to the heat by modifying their training methods during preseason. But, once competition in fall sports gets underway, intense heat just becomes another opponent.
This is especially true for cross country runners.
Soccer and field hockey players run a lot but there are times in the game when they can take a breather. Football has breaks after every play. Volleyball and tennis have breaks throughout their matches and golf – well, golf is golf.
With cross country, there are no breaks so runners need to do everything possible to prepare for races in intense heat.
Meet officials also must be mindful of health implications when runners have to compete when the temperatures are high, the humidity is brutal and the heat index is off the chart.
The 2016 Abington Invitational is a good example.
Held on September 10, the Abington Invitational was met with race day conditions of temperatures in the 90s, elevated humility and a heat index that makes people want to sit at home in an air-conditioned room.
Still, the race went on. But changes were made to the race schedule and a few runners did end up in the hospital.
“It’s almost always hot when we have the Abington Invitational but this was one of the hottest ones ever,” said Abington coach Bill Neely. “We ended up changing the time to an hour earlier. We also changed the junior varsity races to 3K instead of 5K.
“It had to be in the low 90s by 10 a.m. And, the humidity was really high. A number of the runners were dehydrated.
“We had plenty of water available for the runners throughout the race. We had a doctor on-site along with two medical technicians and a trainer. We were able to cope with all the challenges.”
Abington’s top runner Kelly Jawork said, “It was such a hot day. I hydrated so much all week and ate salt-rich foods. I knew what was coming.”
On the same day, William Tennent’s Evan Hutton ran in similarly brutal heat conditions at the Centaur Invitational in the Lehigh Valley.
“It was really hot – one of the hottest races I’ve ever run,” said Hutton. “And, it was really humid. I was sweating a lot just in the early-morning warm-ups. I just made sure I stayed really hydrated. And, I stayed indoors until it was time for the race.”
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