On Friday, June 17, Alexandra Kelly stuck the landing in the grandest way possible.
A week after breaking the New York State record, and mere days before prom and graduation, the 18-year-old Rocky Point senior one-upped her own 42’5’’ mark by compiling a 43-00.25 to take home the gold; a “monster” accomplishment, according to her Track and Field coach, Joe Camarda.
“She is an amazing athlete,” said Camarda.
With a King’s ransom of accolades including five varsity letters, five All- Counties, three All-States and one All-American, that’s understating it.
Her mom, dad and sister in attendance right next to the sandpits, Kelly looked up to her supportive family fold after each of her three jumps on the day. The day may have seemed
like a breeze to those who had grown accustomed to Kelly shattering records in recent weeks; but, according to Kelly, “it was definitely nerve-wracking.”
“The most difficult part,” says Kelly, “is just the waiting around.” Most who have ever competed in Track could attest to this. Thankfully, for Kelly and her fellow triple-jumpers, no starting gun is deployed to unsettle them before they can earn their chance to shine.
Kelly’s ultimately victorious ritual consisted of consuming pump-up music on the drive out to the UPenn-held festivities, then zoning in while preparing alongside her foes for the day, including three other New Yorkers she had defeated on the Federation front days earlier. Finally, when it was high time to make her final moment as a high school athlete count more than any of them, she did not miss.
“The warm weather definitely helped,” Kelly revealed. With most of her classmates readying for the wind-down of high school chock-full of moving up ceremonies and a summer surely set to “Congratulations” by Post Malone on repeat, Kelly was keeping conditioned. Focused. Locked in. She believes dealing with ankle and back injuries earlier on in the season ended up her saving grace; with others perhaps burnt out, or at the least, fatigued in the eleventh hour – Kelly, on the other hand, was in midseason form.
And now? An exhale.
“I definitely got Burger King right after,” Kelly quipped, noting the fast-food chain’s paper crown as the second of the day she had worn, after the All-American one (pictured below).
During a week where everyone she has ever met or inspired has turned to social media to sing her praises, the kind words that resonate the most, for Kelly, are those from her competitors.
“It’s something very unique to Track, that you can literally go out in the highest competition in the Nation and come out friends with the people you’re competing against.”
Here’s to the next four years of Alex Kelly befriending more of the opposition while triple-jumping against the best of the best in the Ivy League Conference on full-scholarship at Princeton. You’ve made Rocky Point — all of Long Island — prouder than you could ever know.
