Crowley battled to best season for PHS
By: Justin Feil
When Alison Crowley joins the Lafayette College track and field team this year, the incoming freshman will be a much more self-confident athlete after coming through a trying final scholastic season.
"You can’t accomplish something if you don’t believe in yourself," said Crowley, who graduated from Princeton High last month. "Just because other people might not believe you can do it, you have to block out the negativity. You have to deal with what you got and make the best of it. And always support yourself."
Crowley was hurt five minutes into the spring outdoor track and field season when she ran into an improperly placed hurdle while demonstrating for the less experienced Little Tigers the form that had taken her to the Meet of Champions as a junior.
"The start of my season was not what I was looking for at all," said Crowley, who developed tendonitis in her knee from the collision. "I knew it was going to be rough. I was positive and optimistic about it. I tried to tell myself that losing a coach shouldn’t be the end of all I’ve been working for."
Crowley’s coach for her first three years, Andre Bridgett, assumed the reins at New Brunswick this spring. Bridgett had been the one who talked Crowley into trying the triple jump and the 100 hurdles, events considered too risky after she injured cartilage in her foot as a middle schooler.
"Freshman year, I came in not thinking I’d do anything more than long jump and 400," Crowley said. "It just changed to hurdles and triple jump. I never thought it would. I’ve been recruited for those two now. I have Coach ‘Dre to thank for that. I am happy I’m so versatile."
With Crowley’s knee nearly recovered, she broke bones in her left foot, the foot that she takes off and lands with in the triple jump and jumps off of in the hurdles. The injury set her back until it was almost counties.
"I did the best I could with the circumstances," Crowley said. "I didn’t have a base. I couldn’t bend my knee. I didn’t have foundation I had at the beginning of season. I just wasn’t as strong. I wasn’t as good as I thought I could be."
Yet, she was still remarkably good. At the Mercer County Championships, a partially healed Crowley was third in the hurdles on a judges ruling, but she recorded the fastest time of the meet in one of the heats. She did not compete in the triple jump due to her injuries.
Two weeks later at sectionals, Crowley proved she was coming along quickly. She won the Central Jersey Group III triple jump for the third straight year with a meet- and school-record distance of 35 feet, 6 inches. She was second in the 100 hurdles by a whisker, and led the 4×400 relay to a sixth-place finish to help them advance to the Group III meet. Crowley had a hand in 19 of the 37 points for PHS, which finished fourth overall.
At the Group III meet the next week, she was the lone Little Tiger to move on to the Meet of Champions with a fifth-place finish in the triple jump. She closed her scholastic career by moving up four places from her pre-meet seeding to finish 11th in the triple jump in her third MOC.
Alison Crowley is the Princeton Packet Girls’ Track Athlete of the Year.
"One of the things that Alison has that a lot of kids don’t is," said PHS head coach John Woodside, "when the stakes are higher, she always runs better. That’s very impressive.
"Successful people, they’re driven. And they set high standards for themselves. She can be hard on herself. I think it helps to push her on, rather than discouraging her. I think that’s her way of motivating herself. I’ve seen her bounce back from every setback she has had. She had a great year and a great season. She was an extremely important part of our team."
Crowley wanted so badly to be a big part of it that coming back from her injuries too quickly almost cost her more time. Initially she tried training through her knee injury. Always, she did what was asked for the team, though she tried to conserve herself.
"In dual meets, I was running all over the place," Crowley said. "I did all the events I could. After my foot started hurting me, I did three events instead of four. If I could take one (triple jump) and stop, I’d do it. If my first jump was good enough to win, I’d just stop then. I also ran the 200, and the 200 went off at the same time as the triple jump so I’d have to run back and forth.
"I usually cut out the 4×400. If we were winning by a lot or losing by a lot, it didn’t matter. I didn’t focus on the 400."
What she did try to do by the close of the season was put more of her energy into her top events, the hurdles and the triple jump, with assistant coach Greg Hand helping her in the latter. By sectionals, it was starting to pay off.
"I started getting better at the hurdles," she said. "I started remembering what I used to do. At counties, I started getting it back. I was happy about doing better, but I was so disappointed that I got third. I thought I was second. I wish our county would get automatic timing. I don’t know what happened the rest of the meet. I didn’t run basically the 200. I guess I shouldn’t have been so hard on myself. I’m hard on myself all the time. In the end, it pays off.
"I was so happy with my race (at sectionals). I really wanted to beat Jenise (Jones of Ewing). I was so close. She just leaned a little farther. I wish I had won. I was proud of myself though. In the triple jump, I was happy with myself. I was jumping what I did before."
It landed her in her third Meet of Champions. She had previously competed in the triple jump, as well as the hurdles and with the 4×400 relay in her Little Tiger career. After sectionals, she advanced from Groups feeling better about her performances.
"I guess what I needed was confidence," she said. "This year, I was stuck with a time that was nowhere near my best. I wouldn’t ever place where I wanted to. At sectionals, I finally gained confidence. That helped me so much.
"I started visualizing again before sectionals. I made myself visualize. I thought about how I felt last year and how my attitude was last year. I tried to be positive, but there was so much negativity around me, it was hard. But I didn’t let it get to me."
Not losing her former coach, nor injuries to her knee and foot could keep her from ending her senior year on a high note. She narrowly missed a Top 10 finish, but came up with a MOC personal best 11th.
"I ended up doing better than I did last year," Crowley said. "If I had been on the same track that I was the three years prior, I would have done a lot better. But this year’s a different year, and I did better. I still beat out my times in the hurdles, beat out my jumps. I’m going off to college and I know I’ll have good coaching. I have a lot of room to grow. I’m optimistic about the future."
"She’s been terrific for many years," Woodside said. "This is the latest in a long line."
One that he’s sorry to see end this spring. It’s hard to think to next year and how the Little Tiger girls will fare without Alison Crowley. For four years, she was one of their top performers, one who was versatile enough to score in every event she entered, and when completely healthy, good enough to win any of them.
"We’re going to miss her," Woodside said. "We can’t replace her. We’ll try to just find some people to step up and try to get back some of those points."