Dannwolf leading a strong group of Mustang runners

Brick Memorial girls
off to fast start this indoor season
By Wayne witkowski
Staff Writer

Amy Dannwolf picked up where she left off from in the cross country season for the Brick Memorial indoor girls’ track and field team.

The senior distance runner set two school indoor records early last week and led a fine showing by the Mustangs in the Spiked Shoe Classic at the 168th Street Armory in New York.

Dannwolf clocked a 5:34 mile, good for eighth place and a school standard. Ninety minutes later, she ran her specialty — the 800 meters — and won in a school record time, 2:24.50.

Dannwolf’s times qualified her for the Eastern Championships Feb. 25 at the 168th Street Armory.

"I’m happy, surprised," said Dannwolf. "I did not expect to go that fast. But I worked so hard getting ready. I hadn’t done much with speed yet, just conditioning, and it helped a lot going from a good cross country season."

Dannwolf ended her cross country season in mid-November with a 20:19 time for 19th place in the NJSIAA Group IV, Section 1 championships — 14 seconds off her personal best set in the Ocean County Championships in October.

She then competed in the National Qualifications at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, N.Y., which served as a primer for indoor practice that started a week later.

"I ran a little too fast over the first mile at Van Cortlandt and then I got to the hills, which I didn’t expect to be like that, and they just killed me. But I felt I came a long way in cross country," said Dannwolf, a third team All-Ocean County selection.

But Dannwolf was in mid-season form last week, as was Jen Olszewski, who clocked a sub-5:50 mile for the first time in her career in 5:48, and Lauren Loeb, who set a personal best 5:50 in the mile. Both also ran cross country, as did Kaitlin Toomey, who finished in third place in the freshman division of the 800 in the Spiked Shoe Meet in 2:45. Another freshman — Jessica Imbriaco — finished the 800 in 2:54.

All earned praise from assistant coach Brian Decker, who works with the distance runners.

"Last spring, Amy clocked a 2:18 outdoors in the 800 in the Meet of Champions. But running the first half of the season like this, not even working on speed yet, is a good sign for things to come.

"And I’m also very pleased with Jenny O., who improved drastically. She worked a lot harder than she did in the past."

They were back on the track on Saturday in Lehigh, Pa., competing in the Christmas Relays on the distance medley. Olszewski runs leadoff leg in the 1,200, followed by Toomey in the 400, Loeb in the 800 and Dannwolf in the mile.

Head coach Carol Giannella said she expects big things from her team in that event in the upcoming meets. If those runners’ individual performances last week are any indication, Giannella’s optimism is well founded.