Perry fans probably assume Emma Olejniczak is a senior and for good reason. After all, her resume reflects the accomplishments of a more experienced athlete, not the typical sophomore status she currently has at Perry High School. She has been a 2 year starter for a top ten basketball program the past two years and has also been a key figure in the turnaround of Perry softball the past couple of years absorbing most of the innings inside the pitching circle. This week, she will make her second straight trip to the state track and field meet as part of the Perry 4×800 meter relay team.
“It’s really neat to be able to go back and run at the blue oval for the second straight year. I keep telling the other girls to not let the environment overwhelm you but rather embrace the crowd and use it to your advantage.”
The 800 meter run was introduced to Olejniczak for the first time this season. She was a state qualifier in the 400 a year ago as a freshman and actually was not a big fan of the current race that gave her another free ticket to Drake Stadium.
“It’s kind of weird that I’m running the 800 because I actually wrote down last year that I never wanted to run the 800 and now look at me. I actually started to change my opinion of the race back at our first meet in Perry this year when our 4×800 placed really high. It just turned out we had more depth in the distance races than the sprints this year and we knew this was our best shot at getting to state so I adapted.”
The Jayettes have been solid all season in the event and peaked at conference with the current group of Olejniczak, Mariah Duffy, Sydney Vancil and Breanna Penenger.
“Relay chemistry is very important in track and field because if you don’t like the person you’re handing off to then maybe the handoff won’t go so well. We have never had that problem. We go out to eat together, text and group chat a lot, run together in practice and it just has been a lot of fun working with them this past week.”
The relay exchange in a distance race is quite different from the other sprint relays.
“The actual exchange maybe isn’t quite as important as some of the other shorter relays. The person coming in is normally dead so you have to take it on yourself to go and get the stick from the person. It’s not as important from the seconds perspective but more so in that once you get it you better be ready to take off.”
The good news for Perry is that Olejniczak still has two more years of competing and plenty of time to add more accomplishments to her rapidly growing list. The Perry 4×800 relay will compete at 11:10 am Thursday at state.