When Sports Were Played: Two better than one for Wash High’s Wise
Today’s “When Sports Were Played” takes us back to May 25, 2013, when Alyssa Wise of Washington easily outran the competition and won two gold medals in the sprints at the PIAA Track and Field Championships.
SHIPPENSBURG – For Washington junior Alyssa Wise, the PIAA Track and Field Championships boiled down to nothing more than simple math.
Two, as Wise would prove by winning the Class AA girls 100- and 200-meter dashes, is much better than one.
“For sure,” Wise said, nodding her head in the middle of Shippensburg’s Seth Grove Stadium, her hands clutching yet another gold medal.
After placing third in both events here last year, Wise took first in the 100 with a time of 11.85 seconds, well ahead of Brookville’s Lanae Newsome (12.04).
Wise had a similar margin of victory over Newsome in the 200 as well, running a 24.85 to Newsome’s 25.08.
“I worked so hard this season to get where I’m at,” Wise said. “I can’t even explain how happy I am for this.”
The first-second finish with Newsome came as a bit of a surprise given how fiercely Wise had battled Vincentian’s Ally Bartoszewicz.
Wise topped Bartoszewicz in the 100 at last Thursday’s WPIAL Championships, then finished second to her in the 200.
But in four races over two days at Shippensburg – quarterfinals and semifinals of the 100 and 200 – the two had a grand total of .22 seconds of separation.
“I was looking out of the corner of my eye like, ‘Where’s she at?'” Wise said of the 100 final, which Bartoszewicz finished in 12.24, good enough for fourth place.
“I had a pretty good start, too. Better than in the previous race.”
Wise, who fought off a cold at the beginning of the two-day event – credit a bottle of Robitussin she bought Friday night – said her gold medal in the 100 trumps the 200.
“It’s my main event. It’s what I wanted to (win) at this meet,” said Wise, who became the third girl in Wash High history to win the 100 dash at states, joining Laila Brock (1996) and Tam Nixon (1998).
Wise might want to think about taking up pool or cards, too.
She admitted to holding back in the prelims, careful to conserve enough energy for the finals.
It’s a lesson she learned after running out of gas – getting treated for heat exhaustion prior to the 100 dash surely didn’t help – in these two events last year.
“Coming from my experience last year and freshman year, I knew what to expect in the prelims and tried to save myself for the finals,” Wise said.
Even then, at least in the 200, Wise didn’t feel completely confident.
But she tapped into some of the extra 300s she’s run this offseason and the muscle she’s added to her petite frame and came away with the win down the stretch.
“I didn’t think I could do it, honestly,” Wise said. “Coming off the back stretch, a couple girls were ahead of me. I thought maybe I could catch them, and I did.”