Afew weeks into the 2009-10 indoor season, senior Tylia Gillon of the Jackson Memorial High School indoor track and field team followed the encouragement of her father and support of her coach and decided to run the 400-meter dash for the first time, as well as the 55-meter dash.
“I love it [the 400], but it’s definitely harder than the 55,” said Gillon. “It’s a challenge, but you can drop your times there more than in the 55. You need stamina. Mentally, you have to get ready for it.”
On Jan. 29, Gillon won both events at the Shore Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Toms River. She had previously won the Ocean County 400 crown.
At the Shore Conference meet, Gillon won the 400-meter dash in a time of 58.63. Southern Regional’s Chelsea Cox pressed her and was second in 59.25.
Gillon won the 55-meter dash in 7.22, which was just short of the meet record time of 7.1 that she ran last season.
Gillon’s efforts, which included leading off the Jaguars’ 4×400 relay team that finished fourth in a time of 4:05.76, led Jackson Memorial to a second-place finish in the team standings with 42 points, behind Southern Regional’s winning total of 61 points.
“We were real happy considering that we haven’t been that close to winning the big meets,” Gillon said of the Jaguars’ secondplace team finish in the conference meet.
Gillon, who is planning official college recruiting visits after the season to Seton Hall and Penn State and looking at a number of other possibilities, is planning for big efforts on Feb. 7 in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III state sectional meet in Toms River, with a third trip to the NJSIAA Meet of Champions as her goal.
Gillon finished sixth in the 55 at the Meet of Champions last season. Two years ago she was one-tenth of a second slower in the 55 and finished in fourth place.
“She knows she can continue to get better,” Jackson Memorial coach Louise Agoston said of Gillon after the Shore Conference race. “She is looking to run a little faster [in the 400]. … She is ready to pop one or two good races.”
Gillon knows what she has to do. Along with running in the Meet of Champions indoors last year, she ran in the Meet of Champions outdoors the last two years.
Last spring in the Meet of Champions outdoors, Gillon finished third in the 100-meter dash in 12.87 and sixth in the 200-meter dash in 24.9, and she anchored the Jaguars’ fourthplace 4×400 relay team that clocked a time of 3:50.54.
“The season has been going great. I can’t believe the state sectionals are coming up in a week [Feb. 7],” Gillon said. “As for the 55, running it in the big meets in the past has helped because I’ll definitely practice to get ready for it and I know how to run it. I love it because it’s nice and short. As long as I have a great start, I’m OK.”
Among her many achievements, Gillon believes a new goal is within her reach — eventually winning two medals in the indoor Meet of Champions.