Observer-Reporter Athlete of the Week
Name: Alyssa Wise
School: Washington
Class: Junior
Sport: Track and Field
Wise’s week: The junior sprinter won a pair of state titles, taking first place in the 100- and 200-meter dashes at the PIAA Track and Field Championships at Shippensburg University on Saturday, May 25.
Wise finished the 100 with a time of 11.85 seconds and the 200 in 24.85.
“Just my family encouraging me,” Wise said of what motivated her. “Pushing myself and knowing that I had to run the best races of my life if I wanted to get the two golds up there.”
Strong start: Wise had been working with Wash High sprints coach Richie Barnes to improve her starts.
Normally one to pop up quickly from the blocks – too quickly – Barnes has been pleading with Wise to stay lower for longer.
“What it was, when she came out, it was to keep her head down for driving, for about seven, eight steps,” Barnes said. “Just keep the head down, keep driving, don’t look up.
“If you keep that head down, digging, then gradually come up, it works better.”
Wise credited her strong start in the 100, her preferred race of the two.
“That gave her plenty of confidence for the 200,” Barnes said.
The days after: Wise claims she didn’t wear her gold medals to school Monday – though it’d be tough to blame her if she did.
It took until that week, though, before what Wise had accomplished really started to sink in.
“I wouldn’t say until about Monday or Tuesday,” Wise said. “Over time and then just getting home from school and looking at my medals. Really sitting down and thinking about what I did.”
Wise had a few friends over to celebrate Saturday night and ate like a track athlete who had just finished her season: pizza, cookies and chips, all well-deserved.
Odd connection: Wise is good friends with Canon-McMillan sophomore Riley Leisman, who traveled to Shippensburg to run the 100 and 200 dashes.
They met through indoor track and field, which Wise did for Canon-McMillan as a sophomore, and remain close.
No photo needed: Wise has qualified for states each of the past three years, though she didn’t medal as a freshman and finished third in the 100 and 200 as a sophomore.
Consider Barnes impressed with Wise’s ascension this season.
Especially after she finished second to Vincentian’s Ally Bartoszewicz in the semifinals of the 200 dash before storming back to win a pair of gold medals by a total of .42 seconds, both over Brookville’s Lanae Newsome.
“It seems like every year since her freshman year she’s been going up there and getting better,” Barnes said. “She impressed me this one. She fought right back. She got beat in the trials, and she came out, I told her, ‘You have to keep digging.’ It wasn’t even a photo finish. She was that one pretty convincingly.”
-Compiled by Jason Mackey