High School Track and field star pushes into collegiate running

 Behind the running journey of Rebekah Priano

By Joseph Priano

 

 

Rebekah (Bekah) Priano has been running since she was little. Playing youth soccer as early as she could, she was always outside and active. In 5th grade, she joined Girls on the Run. The after-school running club for girls was an early indication that she had the skill to run for long periods of time. 

 

Going into middle school, it was recognized by Priano that distance was going to be her main event. She ran in various 5ks throughout the summer, joined Cross Country, and was consistently near the top of podiums for her demographic. After succeeding in middle school, continuing distance into high school seemed obvious, and so that is precisely what she did.

 

Entering high school, it was unclear whether Priano would stick to track, cross country, or both. Lots of distance runners do both, so also learning that she would run for varsity right away in both made the choice easy.

 

One of the main factors that impacted her choice was the immediate bond with Coach Rich Wright. Coach Wright is a legend at Baldwin, having coached there for longer than any other coach in the WPIAL conference. Coach Wright is the distance coach for track and cross country at Baldwin, and has been there so long that he also coached Bekah’s dad, Tim. 

 

After succeeding throughout her high school career, a big change would be coming from Priano. From being a long-distance runner her entire life, Bekah decided to run the 400m race. A member of the 4x4 relay team, she decided that she would rather run that race full time, as opposed to it being a side event. This change would rocket her onto the Baldwin track and field records wall, joining her dad from when he used to run at Baldwin. When asked about her decision to continue with track and field in college, she responded, “When I graduated high school, I didn’t have much intention of competing in college. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up academically with such an intense schedule, and there was a while after I joined when I considered quitting. I ended up deciding to just hang in there for a bit longer because I had already started and I figured as long as I got to the first meet, I could get a gauge of if this was something I wanted to pursue. Competing at a collegiate level for the first time was scary, but coming out of it successfully and reaching my goals was all I needed to remind me of how much I enjoy competing and improving.”

She continued her competing at California University of Pennsylvania. As a freshman, Priano improved so quickly and strongly that she ended the year as the fastest freshman runner in the PSAC (Cal-U’s conference). With a dramatic jump to the top so quickly, something had to have been different between high school and college. Priano said, “Competing at a high school vs. a college level seems like 2 different worlds when you’ve experienced both. In high school you compete around twice a week, having what feels like an endless number of opportunities to see improvement. Along with this, I didn’t specialize in any particular event in high school. I had events that I was better at than others, but I would run at least 3 at any given high school meet. At the collegiate level, we compete once a week and it’s rare to see athletes specializing in more than 2 events. Because of this, the pressure is immensely more intense at the college level. You have half as many chances to achieve your goals, and you have 1 chance to leave it all out there and do your best. It has become more and more of a challenge for me to stay calm before competing as my career has continued. This has been one of my biggest setbacks because I never had this kind of pressure on me in high school, so I don’t yet have the skills and experience to deal with it. That being said, I have improved since high school, and it can only be a matter of time before I figure out how to better manage the pressure.”

As only a sophomore, Bekah still has lots of time to continue to try and rise to the top, training after school every day to maintain consistency. With college being the last level that she will get to compete in, I assumed that she has to have some goal or milestone she is trying to reach by the time her collegiate career is over. She replied to that saying, “By the time I’m finished running track, my goals are to run a sub 58 400m, a sub 27 200m, and place at PSAC championships. These goals seem slightly out of my reach right now, but setting high goals and keeping them in mind helps me to want to work harder.”