Manchester Resident Racks Up the Miles on Northwest Catholic's Track Team

There's nothing greater for a high school athlete than setting a school record. Unless, of course, you break that record. And then you break it again.

On Saturday, May 7, Sarah Gillespie, a Manchester resident and a sophomore on the track team at Northwest Catholic High School in West Hartford competed at the Lindy Remigino High School Track and Field Invitational at Veterans Stadium in New Britain. Gillespie placed first in the Bill Baron 800 Meter Run with a time of 2:12.46, a personal best, breaking her own school record for the second time.  At the same event she placed second in the J. Marshall One Mile Run with a time of 4:54.61, breaking a 22 year old school record.

"[Gillespie] has that great combination of extraordinary talent and a willingness to do the hard work to compete and excel," said Patrick Williamson, distance runner coach for the school's co-ed indoor and outdoor track team. "She often practices with the boys' team. That's the level she runs at," he said.

Northwest Catholic High School, with an enrollment of around 650 students, qualifies as a Class S school in their Conference. However, Williamson said the team often finds itself going up against Class L or LL schools, which can draw from much larger student bodies.

"That can be difficult," said Williamson, adding that their entire co-ed team has about 82 members.  "But we know that when we have Sarah, we can hold our own. We can always count on her to win," he said.

Williamson said Gillespie presently owns several school records – the outdoor 800 meter and the outdoor mile, the indoor 800 meter and the indoor mile, and she's also a member of the school record 4 x 800 meter relay team.

The invitational meets, like the one Gillespie competed in on May 7, tend to be the more elite competitions as the qualifying times can be tough, Williamson said. For example, the qualifying time for the one mile run is 5 minutes, 30 seconds, so only the best runners, like Gillespie, make the cut.

"This is my fourth season [on the track team]," said Gillespie, who competed in indoor and then outdoor track in her freshman year, and then again this year. "My range is everything from 400 meters to the mile (1600 meters), but I usually focus on the 800." 

Prior to her freshman year, Gillespie said she ran cross country for three years at St. Timothy Middle School, also in West Hartford.

"I can't describe why I love running so much. I guess I like that feeling of exhaustion after a race, and then, it's also as much about socializing with my teammates for me as it is about running," Gillespie said. "We've also got really great coaches."

"[Gillespie]  is an outstanding runner and person," said head coach Jeffrey Przech.  "She set the school record [in the 800 meter run], broke it early this year, and then broke it again. We expect her to do that several more times," he said.

"I've never had a female runner with her talent. She's someone that comes along not very often, maybe once in a career," added Przech, who has been coaching the team for the past nine or ten years.

Przech said the best thing about Gillespie is that she seems to have "zero ego."

"I don't think it's possible to handle things better than she does. She's great with her teammates and with competitors. Her parents have raised a great kid," said Przech. "I'd like to think the [track] program has had a little something to do with it, but really, it starts in the home," he said.