Full circle: Aspiring runners are now watching Wyo’s Addie Cohen
Track & Field coverage presented by ATT Sports, Inc.
By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent
Addie Cohen used to stand in the shadow of the finish line and watch the great distance runners speed past. It wasn’t long until she imagined being one of them.
Every track and field athlete knows Shippensburg is the place where dreams are realized. Cohen knew it before she ran her first lap.
“I’ve been coming here since I was so little,” she said. “It feels like I’ve grown up here. I’ve been picturing this for longer than most people have.”
Cohen’s moment arrived Friday. Wyomissing’s sophomore ran away from the District 3 Class 2A pack and earned her first gold medal in the 3200.
Trips to this infield for championship meets were an annual event. Cohen’s mom, Julie, was a sportswriter who told the stories of Alison Willingmyre, Reagan and Bryn Underwood and the other standouts of the recent past. Addie tagged along.
Cohen had an inkling this could happen, even when she was still playing soccer and basketball. Once she began cross country in seventh grade, it turned into a pursuit. A goal she knew she could achieve. When she had a chance to make it happen, she left no doubt.
The 3200 figured to be a three-person race between Cohen, Annville-Cleona’s Braetan Peters and Oley Valley’s Ava Lottig. Those girls ran in a group for the first five laps.
Once Cohen made her move on lap 6, the race was essentially over. She finished in a personal-best 11:24.87 and won by more than 10 seconds. That move was actually a fortunate accident. Cohen lost count of the laps and bolted a little too soon. It didn’t matter. No one was going to catch her.
“It was gutsy,” Wyomissing coach Jim Delp said. “I was impressed. You could see it on her face. She had that look. She left it all out here.”
Cohen added to her medal collection on Saturday with a second-place finish in the 1600. She then teamed up with Vanessa Aguay, Hannah Hurleman and Cadi Hoke to earn silver in the 1600 relay. Wyomissing’s girls won the district team championship.
Running has become Cohen’s sole focus. She gave up basketball and soccer and threw all of her effort into lowering her times. With a district gold and two silvers already in her pocket, her future looks bright.
“Every single race I’ve stepped on the track this season, whether it’s an easy race or not, I feel like I have more in me,” Cohen said. “I have so much more untapped potential. It’s really exciting.”
Cohen is on the performance list for both the 1600 and 3200 at the PIAA Championships this weekend. She’s the No. 7 qualifier in the two mile. A state medal is within reach.
Heat sheets for PIAA Track and Field Championships
Taking on the distance double at districts, in scorching heat, showed Cohen’s tenacity. She’s not afraid to test herself.
“You get that with those distance runners,” Delp said. “You know they’re going to run through a brick wall if they have to. They’ll go through 50 brick walls over the course of a two-mile. Addie just goes.”
Cohen will keep making annual trips to Shippensburg the next two springs. Those earlier visits inspired her. They shaped the athlete she became.
“It was my favorite thing every year,” she said. “To watch the most elite runners.”
Then, just as she imagined, Cohen joined them.
