FC’s Jozwiakowski socks it to her peers
Fort Cherry’s Koryn Jozwiakowski is the Observer-Reporter’s Female Athlete of the Year.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter Koryn Jozwiakowski is the Observer-Reporter’s female Athlete of the Year. Jozwiakowski won a gold medal in triple jump at the PIAA Class AA Track & Field Championships over Memorial Day weekend.
For Koryn Jozwiakowski, success didn’t arrive because of the shoes.
It might have been the most gaudy looking socks in track and field history.
On a whim, Fort Cherry assistant coach Kevin Center found the multi-striped and dual-colored knee highs online and got Jozwiakowksi to wear them while competing in the jumps during the high school track season.
“At the beginning of the season, I told (Coach Center) that I wanted to do something silly,” said Jozwiakowksi. “So he went online and found these pair of super high knee socks. I thought he was joking at first but he said he was serious. I never jumped in high socks and it was so awful at states because it was so hot. They slid down my legs.”
The legs encased in those socks carried Jozwiakowski to unbelievable lengths this season, culminating in a gold medal-winning performance in the triple jump at the PIAA Class AA Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University over the Memorial Day weekend.
The gold medal wrapped up an outstanding athletic career for Jozwiakowski, who also helped the Rangers volleyball team to a section title and second straight appearance in the WPIAL Class A playoffs.
For her efforts, Jozwiakowksi is the Observer-Reporter Female Athlete of the Year.
To understand how talented Jozwiakowski is, one needs only look at this year’s Washington-Greene County Coaches Track Meet at Peters Township, where she set the meet record in the triple jump on her first three attempts, the best being 38-4.
It was a record that had stood for 10 years.
And she broke it despite having two stress fractures in her right foot.
“It seemed the socks created some sort of positive energy; that’s for sure,” said Center with a chuckle.
Before the year was complete, Jozwiakowski would repeat as WPIAL champion after leaping 37-7 at Baldwin’s pit, then wowed them at the state tournament with a leap of 37-9.
“From a technical standpoint, she is very sound,” said Center. “All the training we did was specific to the event. Most other coaches who see her triple jump are impressed by the technical aspect. She does it the right way. Not a lot of jumpers can do that on the high school level.”
That is good news for the coaching staff at the University of New Hampshire, where Jozwiakowski will go this fall to continue her athletic and academic careers. She plans to major in genetics.
“I’ve always been very good at science,” she said. “I’ve always been into scientific things. Genetics is part of biology and I have always been fascinated with it.”
At first look, Jozwiakowski seems to fit the mold of a distance runner, tall, leggy and lithe. Watch her attack the runway on a triple jump attempt and you can see why she is so successful.
Her technique is incredibly pure, the result of being adamant about doing it correctly. She won’t leave practice until she feels that she got it right.
“I’m compulsive more with athletics,” Jozwiakowski said. “It’s not really in my personal life. I don’t organize things at home to make sure they are in the same spot. It’s more like when I’m out on the track, if something feels weird in my technique, I can’t stop until it’s fixed. It’s always been like that.”
At one point Jozwiakowski thought her future would be in volleyball, not track.
“In seventh grade, that was the only sport available to play, along with cross country and basketball, but I cut that off,” said Jozwiakowksi. “I hated cross country; I’m not a runner. I started to do really well in volleyball and thought I would stick with it.”
Jozwiakowski was an outside hitter and four-year starter. But she was lured to track by the coaches.
“I’ve always had good vertical jumps, so I thought I’ll try jumping,” she said. “I’ve always been interested in track. I watched the Olympic games and I was interested in the jumping events. I played volleyball and from seventh to eighth grade, and it was my main sport.”
The first varsity attempt came in a track meet at Avonworth in her freshman season. As all the Rangers track athletes did, Jozwiakowski prepared the best she could without the benefit of a track area at the school. Fort Cherry doesn’t have one.
“I remember it was the first time putting the whole technique together because we didn’t have anywhere to practice other than the gym,” she said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be really bad.’ But I made it into the pit and thought, ‘This is fun.’ Towards the end of the year, I jumped 34-5 and I remember my coaching saying, ‘I can take you to states with that mark.’ I went to the WPIALs and got seventh and was really bummed out. I remember thinking I can go really far. That’s when I began training really hard.”
Weather damaged her hopes as a sophomore.
“That was the year of the floods,” said Jozwiakowski, referring to the thunderstorms that turned the track at Baldwin High School into a small pond, and the landing pits into something just short of quicksand.
“I got second and Maris Seto of Brownsville got first. But it was weird because we both jumped the same and she had a better second jump and that was how they broke ties. I was very upset. I’m very hard on myself. I was upset but I was happy going to states.”
Jozwiakowski finished 14th with a leap of 36-7. The following season, she earned her first WPIAL medal in the triple jump and finished fourth in the state with a leap of 37-10 1/2. That caught the attention of recruiters.
“The summer coming into my senior year, my phone started ringing off the hook,” Jozwiakowski said. “I had a lot of people say, ‘We want to come and talk to you and we want you to visit,’ and I said OK. I was training real hard for my senior season and I was thinking, ‘Don’t bother me.’ I felt bad about that.”
She finally settled on New Hampshire because the school offered a genetics program. She admits it was not love at first sight.
“Actually no,” she said. “I’ve always heard other people say, ‘I knew I wanted to go there as soon as I got there.’ It was weird because I didn’t feel like that. It was more like a gradual thing. I went for a visit and really liked it and went back and it was a feeling this was for me. I love the whole area. It’s beautiful, even in the winter months.”
Jozwiakowski now embarks on a college career not unlike Fort Cherry’s other PIAA champion, Jesse Merckle, a senior at Wake Forest. Center believes Jozwiakowski also can have an All-America career at New Hampshire.
“I always tell coaches I see her as an 18 and 40,” Center said. “I see 18 in the long jump and 40 in the triple jump. That’s her potential. She can develop even more. She can become stronger, faster and jump further, and I think that’s going to happen because of her work ethic.”
There will be one big difference: The socks are not making the trip.