Colonia's Piccinic is HNT Girls XC Runner of the Year
When someone is headed to West Point, you know they have ambition and discipline and dedication. Shelby Piccinic has certainly displayed those traits, especially in running.
But getting forced to sit out for months?
Horrible. Or as Piccinic said, "It was terrible and I hated it."
The Colonia High School senior missed last spring’s outdoor track season because of an injury, and the inactivity lingered into June and July when she would have been training for cross country. But she knew the best course of action was to wait it out, no matter how long it seemed.
“I was super antsy, but I had to hold myself back a little bit and trust the doctors, which was to just keep resting,” Piccinic said. “Then I came back for cross country and it was more than I expected of myself.”
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She eased into tip-top shape and was just fine once the championship season started. Piccinc is the Home News Tribune Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year for the third-straight season after repeating as the Greater Middlesex Conference champion. As a sophomore, she placed second.
At the North 2 Group III sectional on Nov. 4, she set a PR with a 18.17.65 in a third place finish at Greystone Park in Morris Plains. A week later at the Group III championships at Holmdel Park, she took 15th with a 19:34 to qualify for the Meet of the Champions.
Her goal in the 180-runner race was to place in the top 20 to get on the podium. Mission accomplished. Piccinic finished 20th in 19:16 at Holmdel Park on Nov. 18.
“I think that this solidifies her as the greatest cross country runner that’s ever come out of Colonia High School,” Patriots coach Mike Quick said. “She’s had this dedication from the day I met her, her first day at practice freshman year all the way through now. She has complete dedication to the sport. She’s always striving for excellence and she has bigger and better goals set in front of her after high school that I know she’ll be very successful in everything that she does.”
To think, Piccinic didn’t know how her season would unfold because of the injury. She suffered a stress fracture in a tibia, which she attributes to the wear and tear of running.
“That was a very hard time for me,” she said. “It kind of crept up on me. I didn’t really feel it, then all of a sudden I just felt pain so I knew something was wrong. I didn’t need a boot or anything, I just had to rest and that was pretty much it. It was extremely difficult. I love my training.”
Yes, she’s the type of person who actually does her to-do lists. Piccinic includes weight lifting and cross-training to her routine such as swimming and biking. By the end of July, she started doing easy miles. Piccinic said, “I didn’t set any of my bars high because I was just getting back into it.”
She felt more confident heading into the GMC race after completing speed workouts and accumulating miles. The plan was to simply win, not worry about a blazing time. Indeed, she won in 10 seconds slower than she did in last fall’s race.
As a savvy senior, she was able to read her opponents and strategically stayed with the pack until taking off after the hill to win with a five-second advantage.
“I was happy with my performance,” said Piccinic, who is the first Colonia girl runner to win a GMC title. “I wasn’t even expecting to win GMCs again because of my injury and how I started my training late. It was just a good season overall.”
Next year, Piccinic will run cross country and track at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
“I really researched the academies and I just felt an attraction to being in the military,” Piccinic said.
After visiting her junior year, she “just fell in love while I was on the campus. I knew that’s where I wanted to go. … It was something I felt really passionate about.”
That desire was confirmed after talking to the Black Knights coaches and runners.
“I knew that it fit my interests,” said Piccinic, who is interested in engineering. “I’m a very disciplined and structured person. I’m always either training or doing school work, so it was a place that fit in with my likes and everything. It’s a perfect place for it.”
After graduation, she'll get commissioned as a second lieutenant. The commitment includes serving five years in the Army on active duty. While she doesn’t come from a military family, an aunt and uncle were in the Navy.
“They’re proud of me that I chose Army even though they’re Navy,” she said with a laugh. “They were like, ‘C’mon choose Navy.’ I just knew that my heart belonged at Army.”
The extensive application process included getting Congressional nominations.
“I remember the end of junior year I was always running around in school trying to find teachers to get recommendations or fill out things for me and then I was always in the guidance office working with my guidance counselor to get all my transcripts in,” Piccinic said. “Or my scores in. So definitely, my school is super supportive of me and my principal helped me a lot through the way. So it was great.”
Now, it’s not like Piccinic is having senioritis. Her challenging classes include calculus, AP Literature and Chinese 4 – she’s a member of the National Chinese Honor Society. While Piccinic is not yet fluent in speaking the language, she said she’s better at reading and writing in Chinese.
“I think that she is definitely one of a kind,” Quick said. “She will go down as the greatest cross country runner at Colonia High School. She’s changed my career for the better and the team for the better. She has a lot of respect from our faculty. From other coaches. From other coaches in the GMC."
Quick said he had to become a better coach because of how good Piccinic is, and “I realize that I can push the girls a little harder to achieve better results.” Additionally, Colonia had its largest girls team in years this season.
Call it the Shelby Effect.
“I think that everyone keeps hearing her name in the announcements and in the newspaper and that definitely creates a buzz for the program,” Quick said. “So as successful as it’s been for her, I think it helps build our cross country and track programs because everyone wants to see who she is and get out there. She instills a belief in everyone else that’s around her that they are able to do it as well if they get out and try.”
2017 ALL-GMC GIRLS CROSS COUNTRY SELECTIONS
As selected by the coaches
ALL-CONFERENCE
Shelby Piccinic, Colonia; Kayla Rosario, Sayreville; Nicole Fenske, South Brunswick; Rebecca Hartman, South Brunswick; Julianne Ferraro, South Plainfield; Camille Lussier, Metuchen; Nina Suss, Metuchen; Angela Cao, J.P. Stevens; Cynthia Boryeskne, Edison; Cassandra Vega, South Brunswick; Kaitlin Napoli, Piscataway
Coach of the Year: Wilfredo Rivera, South Brunswick
ALL-RED DIVISION
Gabrielle Donou, East Brunswick; Meghan Mcspirit, East Brunswick; Amanda Abair, Old Bridge; Angela Piccini, Monroe; Sarah Kulpa, Monroe; Sophia Milla, South Brunswick; Danae Audibert, South Brunswick; Kacy Colletto, Edison; Alexa Minneci, Old Bridge; Emlia Galkin, East Brunswick
Coach of the Year: Wilfredo Rivera, South Brunswick
Sportsmanship: Piscataway
ALL-WHITE DIVISION
Bridget Thomas, Metuchen; Trinity Eason, Woodbridge; Leah Lopez, Sayreville; Victoria Hermanowski, Sayreville; Emma Kacani, Metuchen; Kaylah Davis, Woodbridge; Gabrielle Stankosh, Bishop Ahr; Jessica Addesso, Spotswood; Katherine Perez, Bishop Ahr; Janice Igbinobaro, Woodbridge; Nickie Maselli Spotswood
Coach of the Year: Kelly Holleran, Metuchen
Sportsmanship: Colonia
ALL-BLUE DIVISION
Mary Ann Walsh, South Amboy; Bella Godish, Highland Park; Anne Vrubliauskas, Middlesex; Monica Marclay, Middlesex; Mara Dunsavage, Middlesex; Talia Fishman, Highland Park; Daniela Terralhiero, South River; Amber Woll, Dunellen; Anelle Mouton, Dunellen; Josie Basch, Middlesex; Cassie Carr, East Brunswick Vo-Tech
Coach of the Year: Trevor Powers, Middlesex
Sportsmanship: Mother Seton