BY TIM MORRIS
Staff Writer
SCOTT PILLING staff Marlboro freshman Ada Unachukwu is making a name for herself as one of the top sprinters in the state, coming off a strong winter indoor season. Ada Unachukwu is consumed by speed. Foot speed.The kind that takes the Marlboro High School sprinter from one point to another on a track faster than anyone else.
“I’ve always been fast and always liked competing,” she said. “I’ve always liked the fast part of it [track]. I want to run as fast as I can.”
It was the thrill of running fast that brought her to track in the first place. Then, it was the Summer Olympics from Greece that convinced her that track was for her.
“I thought track was really cool,” she noted.
This winter as a freshman, Unachukwu decided to give indoor track and field a try with shocking results.
She began the season tearing up the competition at freshman competitions, convincing coach Ray Sypniewski that she was ready for a higher level of competition.
In her first major varsity competition, all she did was win the Monmouth County 55-meter dash title, finishing ahead of Ocean Township’s highly decorated duo of Tiffany Grant (the outdoor Meet of Champions [MOC] 400 champion) and Georgina Nembhard (an MOC medalist at 200 meters). As if that weren’t shocking enough, the margin was remarkable, 7.0 to 7.6.
“I don’t know how I got that,” she said of the time, a new Freehold Regional District record and one of the fastest run under cover in the state last winter.
The goal heading into the meet was just to make the final.
“I was happy to get to the final,” she said. “I was feeling relaxed.”
Unachukwu had to overcome more than Grant and Nembhard. It seems the Mustang was a novice at the blocks.
“I had never worked with blocks before,” she pointed out.
She won her trials heat easily, but her unfamiliarity with the blocks showed, and Sypniewski worked on her starts at the side of the track. In the semis, Unachukwu ran a 7.2, finishing with the same time as Nembhard. That made Sypniewski re-evaluate what he had.
“It was then that I was like, ‘I think I may have something special here,’ ” he said.
More work on her starts followed her semifinal sprint, setting her up for the shock of the meet.
“We figured it out,” Unachukwu pointed out.
Unachukwu continued to excel during the season, proving the county championship wasn’t a fluke, by placing third at the Shore Conference and qualifying for the MOC in Princeton.
“Everything I do I try my best,” she said.
While Unachukwu finds sheer joy in running and running fast, she knows that there is a lot of work involved. Natural talent only gets you so far.
“It’s not always fun,” she noted. “You have to run a lot and go to the weight room. It’s very important to build yourself up.”
Having established herself as one of the state’s best sprinters indoors, Unachukwu looks forward to the outdoor season, where she will be able to compete in more events, especially in dual meets, where she can run the 100-200-400, and do the long jump in the field.
“One thing that I’ll carry over to outdoor is to just try my best every race and learn from each one,” she said. “You can always do better.”
The outdoor season is more team-oriented with dual meets and a larger relay schedule. Unachukwu likes that.
“I like the atmosphere of track,” she remarked. “I like having a team, and people that push you forward and make you do better.”
Sypniewski believes that Unachukwu is built for the longer sprints outdoors because of her long stride. Despite her success at the 55-meter dash, she’s better the longer a sprint is because it gives her time to get into full stride.
As if to prove Sypniewski’s point, in her first meet of the season, the Kearny Relays, she ran a anchor split of 11.73 for 100 meters. She also long jumped 15-7. They are marks that will stand up in any competition this spring, and she’s only getting started.