Kelly enjoyed breakout season
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Jillian Kelly’s phone tells how much she grew in the fall.
It was silent in the beginning of the year when the Montgomery High School senior started her second season of cross country under the radar. With each race, however, Kelly gave a peek at her ability to star not just at this level, but in college.
”At the beginning, there weren’t any,” Kelly said. “Once my times improved a bit, I got a few calls. It really picked up later in the season which made it very busy, trying to figure out what I want to do.”
Kelly continues to weigh her options after adding considerably to a resume that now sparkles with promise.
She came into the year with a personal record of 19:47 for five kilometers, set in her first year of cross country last fall. Her final scholastic season began with an eye-opening second at the Randolph Invitational in 19:16. She kept picking up steam through regular-season meets against a Bridgewater-Raritan team led by Marisa Ruskan and a Hillsborough squad led by Kelly Janokowicz.
”I was slowly catching up,” Kelly said. “That helped me.”
Tom Huelbig could see his runner changing, and the MHS girls head coach saw the biggest growth coming as she ran with the best in the county.
”I think she made a great leap after our meet with Hillsborough,” Huelbig said. “That’s the race that let her know, I can run with some of the better runners around and how great a runner Kelly Janokowicz turned out to be. It was that meet that really propelled her.”
Kelly ran with Ruskan and Janokowicz at the Shore Coaches Invitational before placing third at Holmdel in 19:22. Only 11 days later, she gained confidence when she led Ruskan and Janokowicz for most of the race before Ruskan outkicked her at the Somerset County Championship. Her 17:58 for second place was a shocking drop of more than two minutes from last year’s county finish time.
”At the beginning of the season, I knew I was improving,” Kelly said. “At the county, I was shocked and excited. I knew I was running well, but not like that.”
Kelly proceeded to go faster and faster over the coming weeks. She took second again at the Skyland Conference Championships, this time in 17:53. After a delay of a week due to super storm Sandy, Kelly ran a personal-best 17:48 to win the Central Jersey Group IV state championship. A week later, she was fourth in her first Group IV state meet, and she had college coaches congratulating her after placing 13th at the Meet of Champions in a MHS record 18:41 for Holmdel Park. She closed her year 23rd at the Foot Locker Northeast Regional.
Jillian Kelly is the Princeton Packet Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
”When you realize your training is paying off it makes me more motivated to try harder the next few seasons and in college,” Kelly said. “I’m happy I had the opportunity this season to improve so much and run in college.”
Kelly had a hard time leaving soccer. She knew she was part of a Cougar girls soccer program that was headed for big things, but running had turned into something she had to pursue.
”At the beginning it was something to stay in shape,” Kelly said. “I like my time to be occupied. I like to fill up my time after school and it turned into something completely different.
”I loved soccer. It took me until junior year to give it up. I’m so proud of (the soccer team that won the state title). I left the team knowing they were going to be amazing.”
Kelly had run track and field since freshman year, but her breakout season didn’t come until this fall. Her years of experience and a new desire carried her farther and faster than ever.
”This year, I was just more motivated. That was definitely the key. I believed I could do and I set my mind to achieving the goals I had.”
Though she didn’t have as much success as a junior, her first year of cross country was a huge benefit. It was a learning experience that the strong student fully absorbed.
”I was figuring it out and trying the best I could and getting a sense of the sport,” Kelly said. “Everyone thinks you can just run, but there’s more strategy to training and racing.”
Kelly’s training wasn’t drastically different than her first year, but her experience was much greater. Huelbig relied on Kelly to tell him how she was feeling and how much more she could handle in workouts. Kelly may have peaked just a week earlier than she wanted to, but her results were beyond what they ever expected.
”We expected certainly improvement, but the amount of improvement and the short time was a little surprising,” Huelbig said. “We knew she would improve, but it was a little surprising how much she improved in a short period of time at the end of the season.”
Kelly’s breakout win at sectionals followed a week of dealing with the destruction in the wake of Sandy. Kelly was more involved than many teens in the relief efforts. A volunteer with the Montgomery EMS, she was manning the phones, dispatching and monitoring ambulance and emergency care during the week. Kelly has been volunteering there since her sophomore year.
”I guess I was really interested in the medical field,” she said. “When I was little, I was in a car crash and EMTs came and I always wanted to be one. I do it every Wednesday night and some Saturdays when we have events or things.
”It was really interesting and it was a great opportunity to help people in our community,” she said of the week of the Sandy storm. “We were lucky we weren’t hit as bad as people down at the Shore were.”
Kelly maintained her own training as much as she could during the week, and it paid off with her fastest race of the year and her first significant win.
”That was awesome,” Kelly said. “I never got the win, I’d gotten second and third before. I wanted to win, so I was pretty excited. It was really cool to race against such good runners.”
She kept herself among the top echelon of Jersey runners over the final two weeks of the season, including posting a new school record at Holmdel to top Jillian Prentice’s mark.
”Everybody knows how good Jillian Prentice was and she’s had good success at Richmond now,” Huelbig said. “For Jillian (Kelly) to come on and surpass what she did, says something about what she was able to do.”
Kelly isn’t done yet. She is just getting used to the demands of cross country and the racing strategies and courses. She heads into winter track plenty motivated to build off her breakthrough cross country campaign.
”I think it hasn’t changed me that much, I’m just excited about the future and how things are going,” Kelly said. “I’m going to keep working hard. I hope to improve more and more.”
And with it, Jillian Kelly figures to be fielding more phone calls from college coaches.
”She’s going to turn out to be a late bloomer as far as cross country,” Huelbig said. “She’s going to end up at a school and somebody is going to be pleasantly surprised with how well she does. I know Rutgers and a couple other schools talked to her.
”I think she’s going to be very successful. She’s one of those kids — she just has everything. She’s smart, does her civic duties with the first aid and she’s athletic. She’s the complete package. She finds a way to balance it all, which is pretty amazing.”

