The Three Freshmen: Taylor Kisic, Paige Clancy and Hannah Haring head into sophomore years armed with state experience and hunger to stay on rapid improvement curve

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com
For the Chesterton girls track team to run its streak of consecutive seasons qualifying to run in the 4x800 relay at the state meet, the freshman trio of Hannah Haring Paige Clancy and Taylor Kisic would need to perform like veterans, and that’s what they did.
With senior Veronica Wilgocki anchoring, the girls ran a season-best 9:34.83 in the regional to qualify for state. Once there, they slowed down to a 9:49.60, which didn’t dim their bright futures in the slightest.
“Those three freshmen, Hannah, Paige and Taylor, they’re hard-working, they’re fun, and they just get after it,” girls cross country and track and field head coach Lindsay Moskalick said after the state meet ended. “You know, we didn’t run the time we had hoped to run today, but the experience is more important than the time. What they learned from today is going to help them so much each year as we build and it’s going to be so much fun to see how each year goes for them.”
Wilgocki has been “the perfect role model for them,” Moskalick said. “And they have been good for Veronica too. It’s been a good team. Veronica was there for them and cared about them and I think that’s what they needed. She showed them how to work hard, which they already knew, showed them the ropes of how everything works and gave them the confidence that they needed to be here today.”
Allison Van Kley, on the 4x800 relay team as a freshman and sophomore, battled an injury during the season and if healthy has the potential get back on the relay her senior year.
Getting to state with three freshmen on a relay team is not a common occurrence, but Wilgocki never looked at it that way, so in turn, neither did the freshmen.
“It was kind of something that we all talked about,” Kisic said. “Ronnie, this was her third year, and that was what we all planned for: ‘We’re going to state this year. We’re going to state.’ It kind of just came upon us. We started running better times and when it came close we were like, ‘Wow, we really can make it to state.’ “
Added Clancy: “As the year we went on and as we got better, we definitely believed it more.”
And in the run that sent them there, their best run of the year at the Portage regional, freshmen Haring and Clancy had the best splits of the group, each running 2:22 and a fraction.
Heading into the regional, the freshmen knew what was at stake, faced more pressure than in any other race, and responded with their best group time, a great sign for the future.
“I was nervous, but I was also really excited,” Clancy said.
Haring said the following day’s race dominated her thoughts the previous night.
“I definitely was quite nervous last night thinking about it, but it definitely went well,” Haring said.
A soccer player in the fall, Haring said of track: “I love it. It’s my favorite sport this year. I love it.”
Haring, Clancy and Kisic give the school a strong chance to push the streak of consecutive appearances at state in the 4x800 relay to nine seasons by the time they are finished running in high school.