In terms of raw athletic talent and potential, Oxford head track and field coach, Irene DeJager likens twin sisters Katie and Emily Woodford to Mike Chrystie.
Yes, the same Mike Chrystie who brought home New York State public high school and federation state titles less than a decade ago – in his one and only season competing in track and field.
The Woodford sisters, unlike Chrystie, will have the advantage of four years of varsity track. Just sophomores in their second varsity season for the Blackhawks, school records, league records, and meet records seem to fall nearly every time they step on the track.
Just a week ago at Norwich’s 4th Annual REK Friends Forever Invitational, every event in which the Woodfords competed, a meet record was broken.
Emily won the 200-meter dash, Katie the 400-meter dash, and the sisters provided the final two legs on three record-breaking relays.
“Those girls were just phenomenal,” said Norwich co-head coach Paul Sims. “In our division, we have the best sprinters. I would say (the Woodfords) are the best female sprinters in Section IV. If they’re not the best, they’re right near the top.”
In spite of Sims’ lofty praise, not a lot of people outside of Chenango County and the Midstate Athletic Conference have taken notice of the Woodfords. Today, however, the soft-spoken twins are taking center stage as our Evening Sun/Smith Ford LLC Athletes of the Week.
“They look like they run so effortlessly,” said DeJager, who has coached her share of standout sprinters at Oxford including Chrystie, Justine Brown, and Eric Betts. “They’re just great kids with a great attitude and a great training attitude.”
Katie Woodford burst onto the scene a year ago qualifying for the New York State meet in the 400-meter dash. She narrowly edged pre-race favorite Bethany Norris – who earned a collegiate track and field scholarship – by a scant three-hundreths of a second. She went on to finish sixth in New York State in the small school division.
Katie Woodford has already bettered her best time from a year ago running a meet-record 58.6 seconds at the REK, and has run the 100 meters in 12.7 seconds, easily one of the best times among small school competitors in Section IV.
Emily Woodford, for her part, shattered the league record in the 200-meter dash running 25.2 seconds earlier this year – the best recorded time among all Section IV girls this season.
What is more impressive is that the Woodfords are usually running alone – far ahead of the competition – and have not been pushed to the wire in any individual event this season.
“They have not been fully tested yet,” DeJager said. “We’re hoping that will happen at the Rotary Meet (at Maine-Endwell) with all of the STAC and IAC schools.”
The Rotary meet was not on the Oxford schedule to start the season. DeJager added the Maine-Endwell meet not to garner any additional attention for her team, but to match the Oxford track and field team against the best possible competition.
“I don’t want to jinx them,” DeJager said of the Woodfords. “I still think they are waiting to blossom.”
Nearly anonymous outside local sports circles, soon enough, the names Katie and Emily Woodford will become eponymous with Section IV track and field.
“They are just so humble with whatever they do,” DeJager said. “We (as a coaching staff) would like to seem them burst out and do backflips after they win a big race. But they are just nice, nice girls...with a killer instinct.”