Cross Country, Track & Field
Favorite athlete: Karissa Schweizer
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the league title this past cross country season while having two of my best teammates right there with me placing in the top 10. I was third sophomore year and I knew I had a shot of winning it the following season. Although an injury overtook my junior year, it felt more rewarding finally winning it my senior year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In the first meet of my senior year, I led one of my teammates off the course. I had even said just before the race that it would be hard to get lost, yet I made a wrong turn and added at least 20 seconds to my overall time.
I also ate a fly two track meets in a row and still managed to win my races. Other people still laugh at that, but I try not to remember it!
Music on my playlist: I love Pop and Country music. Two songs that get me pumped up for racing are “Unstoppable” by Sia and “Girl on Fire” by Alicia Keys.
Future plans: I am really excited to attend Monmouth University. I will be majoring in Health Sciences while competing on their Cross Country and Track teams. Go Hawks!
Words to live by: “Never, never, never give up”
One goal before turning 30: Run a Marathon (I’d love to run it at DisneyWorld!)
One thing people don’t know about me: I was a competitive swimmer up until my freshman year of high school. I started swimming the summer after first grade. I eventually swam for USA swimming and qualified for the Junior Olympics. I continue to do my club swim team each summer.
By GORDON GLANTZ
When you are a long-distance runner, the name of the game is to be leading the pack when the finish line looms.
For Central Bucks South senior Brianna Jucewicz, leading the way has a double meaning, an extra skill that is not lost on the team’s distance coach Lorretto Fantini, who has coached her in winter and spring track since her freshman year and cross-country this past year.
“She’s great to coach,” he said. “She has tons of great leadership. She has really stepped up as a leader, especially the last couple of years, like during COVID, by leading the team through everything.
“She really understands the fine nuances of the sport. She understands why we do what we do. She understands the training. She understands everything that goes into it, like sleep cycles and nutrition.”
A two-time captain, Jucewicz is a natural leader in between meets and in the offseason.
“Our team is so close,” said Jucewicz, who enjoys having her sister – Kaeley, a junior distance runner – to bounce team-related ideas off of. “When it comes to workouts, we have a lot of girls who are able to run together. That motivates them throughout the whole workout -- and the races, too.”
What Jucewicz often encounters are teammates disappointed in their end result after a race. Being a leader and a captain, it means words of encouragement.
“That stuff means a lot,” she said. “You just have to remind them of the workouts, and how they have the strength and to just give it more time and they will be where they need to be. The girls definitely care, and I know they care. If the time is not right, they just have to keep on working and being a good teammate.”
Fantini’s greatest joy working with Jucewicz has been having a front-row seat for her maturation process as she improved her times and worked through injuries during her junior cross country season.
Fantini calls Jucewicz the “backbone of the program” and credits her for creating a “culture of hard work.”
“I’ve had the honor of coaching her for four years now, so I’ve really been able to see her grow and develop – not only through the sport, but as a person,” the Titans’ coach said. “It’s been a real pleasure to have the opportunity to coach her.”
A Major Decision
What may have put the sport’s nuances into focus for Jucewicz was her decision to make it her main focus after making the decision to give up serious swimming (she still competes at “the little swim club around the corner” in the summer).
She explained: “I’ve always loved swimming, and I thought that was my passion, but I also loved running. I realized, after freshman cross country, that it was something I was getting better at. I was kind of losing my passion for swimming. I still achieved a great accomplishment my freshman year. I was on the Top 10 chart for breaststroke. Even knowing that, I thought that running was the way to go. It was the sport that made me the happiest.”
The Next Level
The year-round dedication and success for Jucewicz – living by the motto to never give up – has paid dividends with the opportunity to compete at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, N.J.
Of the choice, she said: “My list was really small. I went to a camp at Monmouth over the summer. I met a girl on the team. I got to meet the coaches. It was just cool to be on campus for a couple of days. A couple of months later, I just said, ‘This is the school.’ The coaches were really awesome. I saw them at states. I just said to myself, ‘This is the right choice for me.’”
An honors student with a 3.7 GPA and a member of the school’s Athletic Leadership Council (designed to bring attention to the school’s athletic teams, a difficult task in the COVID-era), Jucewicz is likely to major in Health Sciences with an eye on a career in physical or occupational therapy.
By making her college choice in October, the senior captain could not only relax and enjoy watching the Eagles with her dad this fall but also reach states in cross country and be part of a lethal 4X800 relay team that is currently first in the state in the winter track season.
“That was really helpful, just to know where I was going and just focus on my last school year,” she said of putting her college choice behind her.
“I definitely think she has room to grow in college, but I think she has room to grow with going forward this season,” said Fantini. “She is going to break her PRs from last season. She broke them in cross country. She is close in indoor, and I’m sure she will outdoor. The training she is doing now is definitely at a new level. She is training harder and faster than she ever had. Once, she puts it all together and goes to the next level, she can definitely keep that going.”
Running at the collegiate level takes a whole level of commitment and resiliency, and Fantini has no doubts Jucewicz has what it takes.
“To get to that level, you really have to commit yourself to that sport,” he said. “This is really a 24/7 and 365-day kind of a sport. You have to commit every part of your life to the sport. You have to train and work hard to get to that next level. It takes a lot of commitment. She has really focused on that.”
Team First
More than her individual events, it is the aforementioned relay that not only has Jucewicz the most stoked but also reveals her as a team-first athlete in a sport geared toward individuals.
“She’s a great teammate,” said Fantini, pointing out that she gave up the 3K at districts last year to run in the relay. “Brianna is a 3K and 5K runner, but she’s great when it comes to putting relays first.”
Jucewicz relishes running the first leg of the relay that includes freshman Riley Rooney, junior Julia Pye and sophomore Bella Smouse.
“I like to get position, and my team can build on that,” she said.
Rooney and Pye have been constant training partners as she fought her way back from a knee injury that was a setback her junior cross country season.
“I’ve been lucky to have those two girls with me this whole season to train with,” said Jucewicz. “They have been pushing me. So, even though it’s an individual sport, they are always right there – behind me, or even right in front of me, and we always work together. We were able to place well in our dual meets. We took the top three spots almost every time.”
Looking back now, Jucewicz understands why the injury dogged her so much, and she realizes it was a perfect storm of circumstances.
“I think it was more of a ‘COVD’ injury,” she reflected. “I was slower than my sophomore year. It was during cross country that it wasn’t too good. Once track started, I was able to get my strength back and drop my times in every single track event.”
It was a “COVID” injury in the sense the team had to rely on itself for training.
“It was just weird period,” she said. “If I were to run, it was for my benefit. We didn’t know what the rest of the year was going to look like.
“That cross country season, I just wasn’t ready after being injured in the summertime.”
Overcoming that adversity only strengthened her resolve as a senior this past cross country season.
“Definitely, in cross country, making states was really important in my senior year because I wanted to hit the goals that my junior year took away from me,” Jucewicz said.
Her success, according to Fantini, is as much mental as it physical.
“She really understands the differences between each season,” he said. “She understands the volume of the cross country season, the training of the winter season and putting it all together and competing for the spring season.
“She can have goals and separate the seasons. They definitely don’t run together for her. She has varied goals for each season, which is great.”
State of Grace
Even though she is playing a sport where you run alone, Jucewicz never felt alone, always feeling the support of her family.
“My parents (Karen and Walt) and my grandparents (Donna and Bill Mathes) are at almost every single meet of mine,” she said, adding that younger sister, Carys (6th grade), is hot on her trail. “If they do miss a meet, it’s surprising.”
She also wanted to thank her coaches for their mentorship.
“I want to thank all my coaches, especially Fantini and (Jason) Gable, and my whole team,” she said, adding thanks to boys distance coach Connor Simpson for his input.
And, last but not least, are the teammates she has taken such pride in leading.
“My team is so close,” she said. “It’s just so much fun to be with them, even outside of running. We’re all so happy for each other. It’s just a great team to be on.”
