Grace Winckowski ‘gracefully speedy’ on the track

It also doesn’t add up that a 16-year-old who admits that she doesn’t like to practice/train can be molded into a state-meet qualifier and a Three Rivers Athletic Conference champion in the 100- and 300-meter hurdles.

Clay junior Grace Winckowski clears the final hurdle on her way to winning the 300 meter event with a time of 47 seconds at the Three Rivers Athletic Conference championships held at Clay Memorial Stadium. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

“I’ve never been the one to excel in training, because I’m not a very hard worker in sports,” Winckowski said. “It always just came easy to me. I remember last year at state thinking it would take more than just being a good athlete to finish at the top. During the offseason I went to a training facility at Athletic Republic. I went three times a week every morning and practiced my hurdle workouts and got my muscle memory down there.

“This season came, and that’s when all the hard work started coming into play.”

Winckowski took up the 100 hurdles in the seventh grade because, basically, older sister Lydia ran them in junior high and so did her aunt Lee, at Central Catholic.

“I was just good at it and I tried to perfect my form, like my sister,” Grace said. “She had perfect form and I wanted to be better than her. When I got to high school, Mr. (Scott) Wamer started working me more. We got it down to three steps (between hurdles) and I got third at the TRAC as a freshman.”

Winckowski won the 100 hurdles at last year’s TRAC championships, then took second at the district meet and fourth at regionals to earn a trip to the Division I state meet.

“For a sophomore,” said Wamer, Clay’s boys and girls coach, “that does not happen very often in the 100 hurdles.”

Winckowski found herself in a 16-girl field loaded with 14 juniors and seniors in Columbus. She finished 15th.

“Going as a sophomore was eye-opening,” Winckowski said. “I was extremely nervous. Looking up at the crowd, at least 10,000 people looking at you, that got you really nervous. After I took it all in, it helped me get focused as a junior to really want to get into the (state) finals.”

And then there are the 300 hurdles. Winckowski, who calls that event “a brutal race,” tried the 300s a few times as a sophomore but it didn’t click.

“Our senior girl graduated, and my aunt did the 300 hurdles, so everyone has been kind of pushing me like, ‘You would be so good at it,’ ” Winckowski said. “I don’t like running distance. I like running the shorter distances. I’ve done five or six (300s) throughout this year. A few weeks ago I knew I could do extremely well if I tried, and I ran a 47.5 or 47.6. I knew if I put a little effort in, I could be really good at them.”

Wamer said getting Winckowski to compete in the 300 hurdles this season was like pulling teeth.

“She knew if she showed me that she could run them, she’d have to continue to run them,” Wamer said. “I didn’t get a ton of effort from her last year in that event. This year she didn’t start running them until about midway through the year. I could see that she was going to do really well.”

Last Friday, Winckowski helped Clay’s girls take fourth place at the TRAC championships on their home track. She helped account for 34 of the Eagles’ 105 points by defending her 100 hurdles title (15.74) and winning the 300 hurdles (47.0) while taking second in the long jump (16-1) and helping the 4x200 relay finish third.

“I consider the long jump my fun event,” she said. “I just took it up this year and I go out there and enjoy having fun jumping with other teammates.”

Wamer said the 100 hurdles is the event Winckowski took to the fastest.

“Midway through her freshman year she’s three-stepping, and I’ve only had three other girls do that before her,” Wamer said. “I knew she was going to be something special. Lydia had good technique, and I knew Grace was going to pick it up well. She had all of the tools in the tool box, but she didn’t like opening up the tool box very often.”

Wamer added that whatever the 5-foot-8 Winckowski sometimes lacks in practice habits, she more than makes up for with her enthusiasm.

“Grace is the type of girl who comes out and just makes you smile,” Wamer said. “She’s got one of those personalities where you never know what she’s going to say next. She brings such a great atmosphere to the track, it makes it a lot of fun.”

Winckowski, who also plays volleyball, has a 3.85 GPA and is smart enough to know what it will take to reach her goal this season: get on the awards podium in Columbus and earn All-Ohio honors. The last female from Clay to earn All-Ohio honors in the hurdles was Kate Achter, who took second at the state meet in the 100 hurdles in 2004.

“I’m aware of what the normal time is to get back to state and qualify for finals,” Winckowski said, “but I don’t overdo it and think too much into it. That’s when everything starts going amiss. I just kind of run my best, and my races have gotten better and better. Leading up to districts, regionals and state, I’m in a pretty good position to where I was last year to actually get into the state finals.”