Chuck Slater, North County News: Good Health Yields Great Results for Kendzor

Freakish foot injuries curtailed Jessica Kendzor’s running accomplishments in her freshman and sophomore seasons. Plus she abandoned track for lacrosse in the spring both times.

For her just-concluded junior year, however, the Kennedy runner stayed healthy and stayed with track and field for the full school year. The results? The single greatest accomplishment in Kennedy’s Track and Field history as well as the finest all-around year ever authored by a runner from the little Catholic school in Somers.

Kendzor advanced to state competition in all three seasons: cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring. She was one of the few Class 2 (schools of 600 or less) athletes to match strides with the big girls all year.

Undefeated in dual meets in the fall, Kendzor was in the top trio at the sectional cross-country championships. Indoors, she started impressing stopwatches and rival coaches from the opening competition.

At the Kickoff Classic, Kendzor was relegated to the second fastest heat in the 300-meter dash but her 43.5 clocking was fourth overall, bumping girls from the top heat off the medal stand. Then, she won the 1,000.

At the sectionals indoors, she finished 3rd against predominantly big-school competition. This earned her a spot on the intersectional relay (the 1,200 leg), which medaled in both public school and Federation competition.

Outdoors, Kendzor was a one-woman point machine as Coach Larry Elliott used her to score (usually a first) in everything from the 100-meter dash to the 1500-meter run.

She was undefeated through league championships in both the 400 and 800 meters, took 3rd in the 800 at the Lions Club Invitational in 2:16.7, took the sectional 800 and there also sparked Kennedy to a school record of 4:10.9 in the four by 400 relay; her 59-second anchor leg was the fastest on the squad by almost four seconds.

“Jessie surged from fifth to third on the last lap and was still passing people after the tape,” Elliott said.

Earlier, she had picked up three medals at the open county competition, fourth in the 800, fifth in the 400 and fifth anchoring the four by 400 relay.

Then at the state meet, Kendzor ran a personal best of 2:15.38 in the 800 for second overall in Class 2. Fifth after 600 meters, she quickly moved up, and then passed two more girls on the final straightaway.

“We researched it,” said Kennedy Catholic spokesman Alex Malecki, “and that’s the highest individual finish a school athlete has ever had at a state track meet.”

As a freshman competing in the prestigious Manhattan Invitational on the Van Cortlandt Park’s cross-country course, Kendzor badly sprained her left ankle. Later, on crutches, she fell down the stairs at school, putting the right ankle in a matching cast as the fall season ended.

The next fall, Kendzor stepped into a leaf-covered hole while running, leading to another severely sprained ankle and another cast. By the time she was 100 percent, it was lacrosse time in both cases.

“Did being healthy all year matter this time? Oh, definitely,” Kendzor said, “I was able to get in all the workouts without taking time off. And, of course, I had three seasons of running.”

Interestingly, she entered high school with no seasons of running. To her, the track had always been foreign territory.

“My dad, Peter, had been a star distance runner in high school and college,” Kendzor said, “and as a girl my mom, Eileen, could out sprint all the boys on the block, but running never interested me. In high school, however, I thought I needed a sport.”

She tried running, and the genes won out. To Kendzor’s amazement, after one cross-country practice, Sister Janet, the Gaels’ legendary running coach, put her and best-friend-to-be Breeda Mannion with the varsity hill-and-dalers.

“You see her run for the first time, and she’s a natural,” Sister Janet explained. “And she’s very coach-able. Sometimes you get a very talented athlete who thinks she knows it all, but that’s not Jess. I’m so happy for her and her accomplishments this year.”

Kendzor’s value to a team goes far beyond the points she piles up.

“She’s very encouraging to other athletes,” Sister Janet said. We had a girl who came out this winter. She had talent but wasn’t a hard worker. Jessica straightened her out.”

Mannion, a successful distance specialist who usually ran right behind Kendzor in cross-country, trained with her close friend and the graduated boys distance star Brandon Wynne.

“We all had fun so we didn’t focus on how hard we worked,” Mannion said. “And if I had a bad race, Jess was always there to say, ‘Don’t worry; you did great.’ ”

Elliot, who noticed her “sprinter’s speed” during the cross-country season, introduced her to shorter distances.

“We had a thing,” Elliott said. “Whatever the race, I’d ask her “How are you going to run?” and she’d say, ‘the way I always run.’ That meant all-out. She’s a fierce competitor – whatever goes into that, she’s got it. And she’s as tough as they come.”

And has enough natural speed, Elliot said, “That she might still be a great 400 runner. Her 400 leg when we set our team record came after Jess had already run the 800.”

Who knows what records lie ahead of Jessica Kendzor in her senior year and beyond. With a 96 average, Kendzor, who wants to be an environmental engineer, figures to have a college career to build her total.

“I have this little game with my dad,” Kendzor said. “He set seven records in high school and one in college. I tell him I’m going to get eight records, too.”

Peter Kendzor, who went to high school in Western Pennsylvania, then college in Philadelphia, now teaches in New York’s inner city, chuckles at his daughter’s goal.

“I think it was seven records,” he said, “but good. Let her shoot for eight.”

Page S15, North County News, June 24, 2009

Pick up a copy of the North County News. See the photo of Jessica Kendzor by Jacob Bergmeier with the caption that reads: Kennedy Catholic’s Jessica Kendzor competes in the 800 meters at the Class B Sectionals. Kendzor made states in cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track.