Sarah Bonnell was far and away the Norwich girls’ soccer team’s leading scorer last season. Yes, she possessed ample skills to direct the ball past the keeper, but she had a weapon more dangerous to defenses than her skill: Speed.
On the basketball floor as a key reserve, again she had competent skills, but she was at her best beating opponents' defenses up and down the floor.
No, this isn’t soccer season and it definitely isn’t basketball season. Bonnell, for the third straight season, has taken her fleetness afoot to the track, and after spending the majority of her career as a runner-up, she’s stepped to the forefront as the Purple Tornado’s top sprinter this season.
Bonnell has won every race she has entered in dual meet competition this season, and is one of just a handful of Norwich girls to ever eclipse 13 seconds in the 100-meter dash – and she has done it already twice in the first month of this season.
The Norwich junior will face some of her stiffest local competition today at the annual REK Invitational hosted by the Tornado, and she’ll step to the starting line as this week’s Evening Sun/Smith Ford LLC Athlete of the Week.
“The thing about Sarah is that she was the seventh fastest girl in all of Section IV last year, and no one knew about it,” said Norwich co-head coach Phil Curley, “because her teammate Katie (Benenati) was sixth. How many coaches would like to have the seventh-fastest girl in Section IV on their team.”
Curley recounted a story from two years ago when Bonnell was a freshman running the 400 meters in the Section IV championships. The event was broken down into four eight-person heats with the slowest heat being the last. Not only was Bonnell cast among the “slow” runners, but she was placed in the eighth lane, a spot typically designated in championship events for the slowest runner. In the estimation of event officials, Bonnell was seeded dead last among all 32 runners. “She had a lot of pride and was determined to prove she wasn’t the slowest runner there,” Curley said.
Bonnell didn’t merely prove she was not the slowest runner, she catapulted past 26 other Section IV runners, and placed fifth in the entire section running the race in 62 seconds. “She came out of nowhere, but that just proves what type of kid she is,” Curley said.
During the winter sports season, Benenati, also a junior, suffered a knee injury, and has missed the first month of the track season. Benenati, who we mentioned was one spot ahead of Bonnell a year ago in the Section IV meet, has occupied Norwich’s top sprinter’s spot the past three seasons. Before Benenati, teammate Elisha Eddy used to nip out Bonnell in grade school racing events.
“Sarah has talked about being second all the time,” Curley said. “It’s great, for a month, that she has been number one. Right now, there is no one in our division who can touch her.”
Benenati returns to competitive action tonight and Curley admits he is curious to see where the two presently stand. “Those two were darn close a year ago,” Curley said, who diplomatically declined to say which girl might have the edge.
“The biggest thing,” Curley added, “is that with Katie hurt, Sarah has stepped in and taken right over. Her numbers this year are incredible. She’s a great kid and this is great for her. She’s earned it.”