For two months out of the year, the past two years, Oxford’s twin sisters, Katie and Emily Woodford have rewritten the record book in the Midstate Athletic Conference. Katie and Emily teamed as part of the 400-meter relay to win a Division II state championship in 2009. The past two years, Katie has won state championships in the 400-meter dash, while Emily was a few feet away from winning a state title in the 200-meter dash last year, only to suffer an untimely fall near the finish line.
The Woofords, now seniors, have come into the past two spring seasons with a flash, and left with a large bang. The other 10 months of the year, they were largely unseen on the local sports season. That is, until the duo – who will likely be a welcomed addition to some collegiate team’s track and field squad next year – decided to compete for B-G/Afton on its winter indoor track and field team.
Knowing B-G/Afton coach Robb Munro quite well, Oxford’s track darlings have continued to excel, continued to break records, and should be well prepared to exceed any an all outdoor accomplishments the previous two seasons. “Let’s be honest, those two didn’t walk in here (to our team) as nobodies,” Munro said. “They were already well trained in terms of their speed. We’re talking about a girl, in Katie, who ran a 11.8 in the 100-meter dash (a Section IV record). Her speed was already outstanding. My ultimate thing is to get her to the point, when she leaves me, that she can go to Oxford and have a spring season that blows everyone’s mind.”
Munro’s training methods are not unconventional, but they are unfamiliar to the Woodfords. The Bears’ mentor is doing his best to take the Woodfords out of their comfort zone. The Woodfords have specialized in the sprint distances at Oxford – the 100-, 200-, and 400-meter dashes. Over the past two months, the Woodfords have ran 600-meter races, 800-meter races, and even ran legs on 3,200-meter relays. Running those distances were foreign to the Woodfords, but Munro has the luxury of a deep indoor roster, so he can tinker with the Woodfords’ training.
“I have been able to use those types of races as workouts for the Woodfords,” Munro said. “For those girls, doing a workout is still fast enough to be competitive.”
Munro’s aim was to build stamina, especially in Katie who runs the longer distance sprint. Over the past two years, Katie has blown away the competition at the start, and with such a large lead, didn’t need a tremendous amount of gas left in her tank to hold on to win. With Munro, Katie is learning to run more strategically in order to have that little bit extra near the finish line – if she needs it.
Woodford is pacing her start a bit slower, but is still extremely fast. Above all, Munro says Woodford is learning to run comfortably. Munro terms that approach, “fast relaxed running.”
Last weekend, at the Hurley-Quinney meet at Cornell University, Katie executed her strategy perfectly against chief rival Lindsay Seymour of Elmira in the 300-meter dash. Seymour was faster than Woodford at last year’s Section IV meet, and had the better of Woodford in most of the races this year. This time, Katie timed her first half of the race perfectly, then turned it on over the last third of the race. Seymour has usually used a better finish to overtake Katie. This time, Katie won the race going away in a sectional record, 40.74 seconds. She was more than three-quarters of a second faster than Seymour, and shattered Seymour’s Section IV record by six-tenths of a second.
“I think the way Katie finished, it was shocking to Lindsay,” Munro said. “Lindsay always used to let Katie go a little, then waited to come on at the end. This time, Katie wasn’t going to be caught.”
Katie’s time, right now, is among the best in the state, and if she competed in the state meet, would likely finish among the top three or four. Yet, Munro is probably going to hold Katie out of that event, and instead have her run the anchor leg on a standout 1,600-meter relay team that includes Julia Knapp, Isamarie Ramos, and Katie’s sister Emily. “Katie could probably medal in the 300, but our objective is to build stamina for her in the spring,” Munro said. “That extra 100 will do more for her, and Emily is running outstanding right now.”
Emily Woodford has focused on other races, and despite running on a tight oval track, ran a 25.9 split in the 200 meters at the Hurley-Quinney meet. Munro equated that to a time of 25 seconds flat on a full outdoors track – plenty fast enough to win that elusive state championship. And Emily is only going to get faster.
“Right now, Emily is faster than she was at the outdoor state championships last year,” Munro said.
In addition to her improvement on the track, Emily is a budding triple jumper, who despite limited practice and relatively raw technique, is on pace to become one of the best triple jumpers in Section IV this spring. “She’s going to be a very strong jumper, maybe not this spring since Oxford doesn’t have a track,” Munro said. “She’s capable of being a 40-foot jumper. “She’s doing it better, but she feels that if she’s not doing it perfect, that she doesn’t get it. The thing is, she has only really practiced it herself. I’ve worked with a lot of other people, and she’s catching on faster than what I usually see. No doubt she will be outstanding. When she gets to the second phase of the training, I can see her adding two feet to her jump.”
Emily is already over 36 feet, eclipsing that mark to place second at the Hurley-Quinney meet. She’s also running the third leg of the relay in around 60 seconds to help Munro improve on what was already a strong relay. “I have kids that can run 62 seconds in the 400, and we’re replacing them with two girls – Emily and Katie – who can run 58 and 60,” Munro said. “People have asked me if I feel like I’ve won the lottery. Without those two, we would still be good, but it’s nice for my girls to see the commitment and dedication of the Woodfords.”