Helps South girls’ track top North
By: Justin Feil
Told that she was part of the first West Windsor-Plainsboro South girls’ track team to defeat West Windsor-Plainsboro North, Tia Williams got a new glow about her.
"Now I’m really proud to be on this team," said the Pirates freshman.
WW-P South, too, is thrilled to have Williams, who won the shot put and finished tied for second in the 100 meters in a 80-58 win over WW-P North. She was also third in the javelin as the Pirates swept the tri-meet by beating Ewing, 80-60. Ewing defeated WW-PN, 76-64.
"Over the years we’ve always handled ourselves on the track pretty well," said Pirates head coach Todd Smith, whose boys also defeated the Knights for the first time, 83½-56½. "We’ve had pretty good distance runners. Now with Tia we have the field event person to go with it. She also throws javelin and discus.
"One thing that makes her good is she’s pretty competitive. The other day, she just told me wants to race. That’s something you can’t teach a kid."
That attitude is exciting, particularly when it comes out in meets. It did Tuesday.
"Tia Williams won the shot put, and at the time, it was pretty close and they have two good shot putters," Smith said. "We told her we needed her to squeeze out a win and she did."
Most exciting is that that Smith will be seeing Williams’ competitiveness in meets for the next three years. He knew she’d be good from the first day he saw her in practice.
"It’s better than I expected and hard," Williams said. "There’s different techniques in each event you have to do. You have to change the way you run or throw. It’s easier once you learn. I’m getting better."
Williams was a standout in the shot put, discus and sprints at Grover Middle School, but she’s been taking on much more than she ever did in middle school. She’s added the javelin to her repertoire while improving in her other events. Her balance of strength in so many events, from sprints to the throws, makes her all the more valuable to the Pirates.
"I’ve seen it before," Smith said of Williams’ shot put and sprint prowess. "When you do see it, it makes for a good combination. Tia is a strong girl and she’s fast. That’s a deadly combination in the shot. She could be really good."
Williams, who started out on the freshman basketball team before moving up to junior varsity at the end of the season, credits her family genes for her athleticism. She tried volleyball this fall with the Pirates and now plans on attending some camps this summer. Track, however, may be going better than either of those sports.
"To do track, it’s not hard," she said. "I’m used to doing sports. I can get into it and be ready and focused to do the events. It’s just techniques. It’s higher level."
With every day that she works on those techniques and sees that higher level, Williams works toward new personal bests in her events. She’s already progressed quickly through the first half of the season, particularly in the shot.
"I think the first time she was in the 25-foot range," Smith said. "Now she’s in the 33s. It’s a big range. As she gets more comfortable with it and the more difficult aspects of the glide, it’s going to keep getting better. She’s not just standing there and throwing it like middle school."
Chucking it is how Williams describes her shot technique in middle school. She’s learning the glide as well as how to master the discus and the javelin, an event that they didn’t have in middle school. The latter two have been toughest to pick up.
"They’re the two events that I hadn’t done much before," Williams said. "Those are like the new ones. In the javelin, you have to have your arm straight backwards away from your body. You have to be careful when you throw. Your body has to be positioned a certain way, so the javelin has a lot of things. In the discus, you have to swing your leg around in a certain position."
With all those new techniques to keep in mind, keeping everything straight can be difficult.
"At times it can get confusing," she said. "You might mix one up with another. After learning them, it becomes pretty easy. It’s like muscle memory.
"I’m just a freshman. I have three more years. I have more confidence in my events than I did in middle school. I might throw about 35 by end of season."
Deep down, however, Williams considers herself a sprinter first. She has a personal best of 13.3 in the 100 and has seen steady improvement in that event as well.
"Since I’ve been working hard on all the events, my time has been much better," Williams said. "In middle school, I would run the 100 in 15 or my slowest was around 15.6 and my fastest would be 13.9. My time in the 100 is much better now."
She rates her first-year experience with the Pirates as good. Of course, she wasn’t quite sure what to expect when she went out for track.
"I didn’t really expect or have a goal to do anything," Williams said. "I knew since going from middle school to high school it would be different. I figured if there’s anything new to learn, I’ll do so."
Including how to beat West Windsor-Plainsboro North.