Girls' Track Athlete of the Year: James Wood's Rene Rosso

By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI | The Winchester Star

Jun 21, 2018

WINCHESTER — When James Wood senior Rene Rosso settled into her blocks for the start of the 100-meter hurdles at the Class 4 state track and field meet on June 2 at Harrisonburg High School, she faced an all-too-familiar situation.

Rosso earned all-state honors in the 100-meter hurdles and 300 hurdles in both her sophomore and junior years, but it was always the same person who crossed the finish line first in those races — her friendly rival, Sherando’s Davina Lane.

Lane graduated last year, but at this year’s state meet Rosso still had a state-championship hurdler to contend with as she settled into Lane 5. One lane to Rosso’s left was Amherst County sophomore Amani Hankton, the girl who took first to Rosso’s second at the Class 4 indoor state meet in the 55 hurdles in February at Roanoke College.

With a seed time of 14.79 seconds to Rosso’s 15.04, Hankton was the favorite for the 100 hurdles as well. The fastest time Rosso had ever run was the 14.87 she achieved as a junior.

“I remember indoor states I was thinking, ‘I want to win so bad,’” Rosso said. “She beat me, and I was like, ‘Dang.’

“When I saw she was coming back for outdoor, me and some of my teammates were looking at her times, and they said, ‘You can do it.’ I said, ‘I’ll try, but she’s fast.’”

Hankton’s speed wouldn’t have mattered at any distance on June 2.

Rosso’s start was so strong that she would have beaten Hankton in a 55-meter race, and the school-record holder in the 100 hurdles kept increasing her lead as the race went on to win by a whopping half-second over Hankton. Rosso recorded a personal record of 14.78 seconds to capture the first state title of her career.

It was a tremendous start to another spectacular state meet for Rosso. She was the only area girl or boy to win two state championships — she also won the long jump — and for the second straight year no area athlete could touch her five all-state medals.

Rosso now earns another first — selection as The Winchester Star Girls’ Track and Field Athlete of the Year.

“Just a great work ethic, and a lot of natural ability,” James Wood coach Mike Onda said. “That’s the combination you’re always looking for — willing to do the work, and natural ability. Those people can really get to those greater heights of performance and achievement.”

As a senior, Rosso also proved adaptable.

Most of James Wood’s coaching staff departed at the end of the 2016-17 season, including head coach Matt Stegmaier, with whom Rosso is particularly close. The only returning coaches were Onda — James Wood’s cross country head coach who was given Stegmaier’s job — and Elizabeth Mumaw, the team’s distance coach this year.

Rosso wasn’t sure how it was going to work out with so many different faces and a new practice regimen, but she eventually took comfort in the wealth of wisdom that they possessed.

New hurdles and sprints coach Rusty McDonald is a former James Wood head coach who was on the staff from 1970-91. Volunteer jumps coach Dave Weir was a coach with the Colonels from 1970-93.

James Wood also brought in jumps coach Caroline Sandy, a jumper and distance runner at Sherando (class of 1995) who had coached at multiple middle schools prior to this year. “[In past years], Coach Weir used to coach me at track meets for high jump, so I already knew who he was, and I knew he was a good coach,” Rosso said. “All the old records at our school were pretty much set when Coach McDonald and Coach Weir were coaching, so I figured we were probably in good hands.

“If you look at my high jump form over the years, it was absolutely terrible. But this year, it got better. We’re getting somewhere with high jump, and that was all because Weir was particular about form. And McDonald used to send me home with books to read about hurdles. They were just really particular about form, which helped me a lot.”

After taking second in both the 55 hurdles and the high jump at the indoor state meet (Rosso achieved a PR of 5-6 in the high jump three weeks before the state meet) and fifth in the long jump and triple jump, Rosso had a frustrating start to the spring season when she pulled a muscle in her calf and had to sit out for two weeks.

But she returned just before the Handley Invitational on April 14 and broke the school record of 26.6 in the 200 that was first set in 1979 and tied in 1995. Rosso recorded a 26.32.

Rosso continued to have success after that — she earned the Outstanding Female Athlete Award for the second year in a row at Woodgrove’s Wolverine Classic on April 20 — but she saved her best for the postseason.

At the Class 4 Northwestern District meet, Rosso set a PR and broke her own school record in the 300 hurdles in 46.27, part of a day in which she had two first-place finishes and four second-place efforts. With Rosso scoring 52 points, James Wood tied for the district championship with 131 points — the Falcons were only able to tie because they had someone take third place in the pole vault, an event no Frederick County school competes in.

“Because of the [athletes] that we lost, there was a lot of talk, saying that we weren’t going to be that great this year,” said Rosso of the district meet. “It was nice to prove some people wrong.”

At the two-day Region 4C meet, Rosso set a PR and broke her own school record in the triple jump (37-9.5) to take third. She then broke the school record she had been chasing her entire career, Robin Landes’ long jump mark of 17-8 set in 1982, to take second two days later. Rosso also won both hurdles events and took second in the high jump and 200 at the meet.

At the state meet, the 100 hurdles set the tone for what was to follow.

“After the third hurdle I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I think I got it,’” said Rosso, raising her voice. “As the race went on, I was like, ‘I think I got it.’ When I crossed the line, I was like, ‘Yes, finally.’”

Rosso followed up that by taking first in the long jump with a 17-7 (eight inches better than second place); second in the 300 hurdles in 46.28; tying for second in the high jump (5-4); and placing fifth in the triple jump (36-1).

During the postseason, the only one of Rosso’s six events in which she didn’t improve upon her regular-season marks was the 200.

Rosso leaves James Wood with 18 all-state medals (indoor and outdoor) and five outdoor school records.

Next year Rosso plans on doing the seven-event heptathlon at NCAA Division I Mount St. Mary’s, where she will compete on a athletic and academic scholarship covering close to 90 percent of her expenses. The Mountaineers will likely make the most of her talents in the meets where she doesn’t compete in the heptathlon. Her PRs would rank in her in the top 10 in school history in the 100 hurdles, high jump and triple jump.

For Rosso, the ride she’s taken to get to where she is now has been a memorable one.

“Going into my freshman year, I went to a couple of [offseason] track workouts and I was like, ‘I am not doing track. This is way too hard,’” Rosso said. “Everybody said, ‘No, you’ve got to do it,’ and it turned out to work pretty well. I’m getting to go to college for it. It’s good to face your fears.”

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