Williamstown’s Brookelyn Reynolds signs with West Liberty
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WILLIAMSTOWN -- Another piece of the puzzle to the Williamstown girls track team's wave of dominance is headed to the next level. The 'Jackets have won the last three Class A state track and field championships, and Brookelyn Reynolds' consistency and hard work helped spear the team in the right direction. She's headed to West Liberty University to study speech pathology and continue her running days on the Hilltopper track team for head coach Justin Simpson.
"I'm just really excited to go there. The team is great," Reynolds said. "They're so welcoming, and I love the campus. Their speech pathology program is really great, and they recently introduced their masters (program), so I'll be working towards that, as well. I've heard so many great things about the program, and I'm really excited for it. My mom went (to West Liberty), so I've heard some things about it. The team's workouts are not too different from mine, and I feel like I'm a great fit for the team."
Reynolds is just one of a host of top runners from the WHS program to keep running in the college ranks, and it's easy to see why she'll be missed. Her freshman season saw her claim a 43rd-place finish at the state cross country meet, but from there, she quickly showed she could hold her own. In 2020, COVID-19 and its unfortunate consequences put that season's track and field slate on ice, but the year was still a sign of things to come. A career-best 15th place finish in the 2020 state cross country meet set things into motion, as Reynolds racked up top finishes to make an even larger impact at the state track level.
Her junior season saw a pair of second-place finishes in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, respectively. A fifth-place showing in the 400 helped her score, as the first of three career state championship relay victories happened here, as well. It was a 4×400 relay triumph with teammates Emma Berman, Tori Combs and Ella McMullen was another sign of things to come for the upstart Reynolds.
Last year's state track meet gave her a duo of state relay wins (in the 4×100 with McMullen, Berman and Jalie Henthorne and 4×400 with Shelby Smith, Berman and McMullen) and a pair of third-place finishes in the 200 and 400, individually.
"Hard work makes perfection," Reynolds said of what makes the WHS track and field squad successful. "It's just getting out there, and getting to it every day. Running is one of my favorite things to do. I've done it since I was little, and I felt like it wasn't time for me to give it up yet. My relay teams were phenomenal, and although they're not with me anymore, I'm still going to take that legacy with me and just do the best I can."
Head coach and West Liberty alum Zach Hall spoke of Reynolds' emergence over the years, as she has one more track season ahead of her.
"Brookelyn is the definition of why we've been good. We have depth everywhere," he said. "She can run anything from the 1 to the 4, so we can plug in people all over the place. We have great coaches and great athletes, and they strive for the best. She's all about sprints. Like I said, she can run anywhere from the 1 to the 4. The younger kids see how hard she works, and we expect them to work that hard. She shows great leadership, and she doesn't have to say that much. She leads more by example than anything else."
Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com