St. Edward junior Bella Uscila discovered her calling is track, even if she can’t always run on one.
“I played basketball and soccer and they were fun experiences for me, but I’ve found track is my true sport,” Uscila said. “I want to go far in my life with track.”
During the recent indoor track season, Uscila almost went as far as possible. She’d like to make the extra step outdoors for a St. Edward team that lacks a track of its own.
“I love indoor season, but outdoors is a lot more fun for me,” Uscila said. “I haven’t had much experience indoors, but it doesn’t have as much competition as outdoors, when you definitely see a lot of girls who can pull away from me.”
Few Class 1A runners pull away from Uscila.
At the March 26 Illinois Top Times Indoor Classic, Uscila placed second in the 1A 60-meter dash in 7.91 seconds. She was just one-tenth of a second behind winner Courtney Sockwell of Rockford Lutheran in the unofficial indoor state meet.
Uscila’s success indoors followed a fifth-place finish in last spring’s state 100 meters. She became the first state track individual medal winner for St. Edward’s girls and just the second overall.
The memory of that race still stirs Uscila’s emotions.
“I never expected I’d make it to finals at prelims,” Uscila said. “And when I looked up at the board and my coach and mom were saying, ‘You made it,’ it was just crazy for me.
“Then I was just hoping for seventh or eighth. So taking fifth was incredible.”
Sockwell is defending state 100-meter champion, and two others who finished ahead of Uscila in the race could return. So there is no shortage of competition. Uscila would face Sockwell again in the Oregon Sectional.
“I think those two are keeping tabs on each other pretty much,” St. Edward coach Katie Beckett said. “Bella has improved drastically, especially getting out of the blocks. She gets out quick and maintains it better than most people.”
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Uscila is pursuing local sports history. No girl from an Elgin high school track team has ever taken first at state. The top placer from the city was Larkin’s Pat Johnson, who was second in the 80 low hurdles in 1974.
“I could see myself catching up to (Sockwell),” Uscila said. “I was with her in the Top Times, but it’s that last bit of the race where she starts pulling away from me.
“I would say toward the middle to beginning of the race is my strongest, but toward the end I just kind of lack the strength and have to build it.”
Uscila has to build it by running around school grounds, except on rare days when the Green Wave work on other Elgin schools’ tracks.
“We don’t have a long jump pit either, and Bella is also a long jumper,” said St. Edward boys coach Mike Olenek, who is girls sprint coach. “We do our jumping work at meets. We get there early and practice for an hour or two at the track.”
A track isn’t all Uscila lacks in practice. She doesn’t have the edge of being challenged daily by other girls.
“We have girls distance runners this year, but she’s alone as a sprinter,” Beckett said.
There is someone challengin her in practice, if not at home. Alec Uscila, her brother, is a senior sprinter who has been to state twice. He took sixth in the 60 at indoor state. Green Wave sprinter Zach Olenek also made state last year.
“Her brother and Zach are always pushing her,” Mike Olenek said. “All three of them were here through all our hardest workouts.
“That’s one thing about her — she definitely isn’t afraid of the work.”
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