Getting to know …

Salem Tech/Woodstown’s Sarah Seiden

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third in a series of in depth interviews with athletes in Salem County. Coaches, if there is a player in your program with an interesting background or backstory the community would be interested in “Getting To Know …”, forward details in an email to Riverview Sports News at al.muskewitz@gmail.com

By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News

WOODSTOWN – Sarah Seiden is living one of the more interesting and completely by-the-book experiences afforded New Jersey high school athletes. She’s a two-sport standout competing for two different schools.

She goes to Salem Tech year-round because of the academic program and runs cross country for it in the fall. But in the winter and spring months, because the Chargers don’t offer the sport, she makes the 3.2-mile drive up Route 45 after school to run indoor and outdoor track for her sending school, Woodstown. She’s set school records for both.

On top of all that, she’s taking college classes at Salem CC that will allow her to get a college degree before she even graduates high school.

The junior sat down with Riverview Sports News at the Woodstown Diner on a rainy Tuesday afternoon before practice to talk about the unique experience, what it means for her schedule, friendships and wardrobe, and her hopes for the season ahead. 

The Wolverines hit the track for the first time this season Thursday – weather permitting.

RIVERVIEW SPORTS NEWS: I’m really intrigued about this two-school thing. Explain why you go to Salem Tech and get to compete for Woodstown? It sounds like it presents some interesting logistical challenges.

SARAH SEIDEN: I was really intrigued about Vo Tech’s programs. I’m in the medical academy with it. Their college classes really hooked me in because I’m able to get my associate’s degree before I graduate and I’m enrolled as a student at SCC, which is really cool.

They have a different way of doing it (at Woodstown). They do AP classes where classes at my school are just college classes. My chemistry class counts for my high school credits and my college credits, which is really cool. So, I do that both at once. I really like that.

We don’t have a track at VoTech. We also don’t have baseball fields and stuff, so if you want to play a sport that they don’t offer then you go back to your sending district and can play there, which is great for me because I have all my friends at Woodstown and I love playing with them and I’ve also known the coaches there for years, so I was really happy I was able to do that.

This year was my first year running cross country for (Salem Tech). I never ran cross country before this year and that was really cool to do. Woodstown does have a cross country team, but since my school offers it (you have to compete there). You can’t pick and choose.

It does get confusing sometimes because I have two separate MileSplits, so my times for different schools were not in the same place so I was worried that recruitment and stuff would be harder for me because my times are in different places. But we were able to find a way to mesh them.

RSN: Your closets must be full of stuff. Do you have a bunch of Woodstown orange and a bunch of VoTech navy blue?

SS: I do. My closet is filled to the brim. I definitely have a lot more Woodstown orange and blue than I do my own school.

RSN: Do you have to make sure you’re wearing the right stuff where you are and have you ever worn something from one to the other?

SS: Never by accident, but sometimes I’ll just show up to my school and cross country meets with all this Woodstown gear on because that’s just what I had. I have all this athletic wear and track suits from Woodstown so I’ll just wear that to those meets.

RSN: Do you get weird looks when you’re in class wearing Woodstown stuff knowing you have to practice VoTech cross country in the afternoon?

SS: Yeah, they kind of give me some crap about that, but it’s all fun.

RSN: Are there any others like you there? 

SS: No other person on my cross country team is sending district from Woodstown who runs track for Woodstown, but there’s one senior, Abby Melle, who is like me and goes to VoTech but runs track for Woodstown; she also swims.

A bunch of my classmates do all their own sports, but go to the different schools. My friend does wrestling and softball for Pennsville; she comes in with all her Pennsville gear.

RSN: So are you a VoTech kid, a Woodstown kid and what’s your diploma going to say when you graduate?

SS: (Laughing) It depends on the day. I used to have some regrets about going to VoTech because it’s not a traditional high school. Sometimes there’s a bit of a difference between them, but at the end of the day it’s all my friends there and it’s all fun. 

RSN: What’s it like emotionally when you compete against your Woodstown friends in cross country?

SS: My old (track) coach, Steve New, was/is the cross country coach for Woodstown and I didn’t run for them, I run for (Kimberly) Kraky who is now our (Woodstown) track coach, which I was very excited about. He (New) had all this fun with it. He would call me traitor, get out of here, because I wasn’t his kid for that. We were always trying to beat each other and that fueled us a lot.

RSN: On the track you run the 400 and 800, set school records in both relays and now you’re embracing the 400 hurdles. What is it you like about all these events and how has your development in the hurdles been going?

SS: Track was my only running sport; I’ve done that since freshman to now. Cross country is very new for me. I always thought of myself as mid-distance/sprinter and I did cross country so I could stay in shape. I didn’t know if I would like it or not, then I kind of realized this could be my thing, too. That kind of shifted all my coaches’ gears to try to find where they want to put me to best benefit myself and the team. I think this year I’m mainly staying in that mid-distance area.

(The hurdles) is just such a fun race for me. I love the 400 hurdles. I’ve been told I have the build for it because I have long legs. It looked fun to me from afar and I really wanted to try it. I asked my coach one day to try it and he didn’t want to let me at first because I had already established my races, but he finally let me one day and it was so much fun and I had such a good time with it and I ended up doing pretty OK with it.

RSN: What do you do away from competition? How to you decompress?

SS: I just love hanging out with my friends and my boyfriend, (Salem Tech basketball player and cross country runner) Tyler Zampino. He pushed me a lot during the season and that was another thing that kept me going. We’re very competitive with each other. I’ve just got to beat him. I will get one under my belt.

I love traveling. For state outdoor last year we got to stay at a hotel and that was so much fun. We stayed overnight and we went out to dinner the night before and it was just so much. It was just a great time. 

RSN: What are your hopes and expectations for yourself and the team this season?

SS: I’m really excited to see the dynamic with our new coach. I loved her in cross country and I love her now for a track coach. I think she’s going to be a good asset to the team.

I really am excited to continue with the 400 hurdles and just improving my times. Indoor season I mainly focused on the 400 because our 4×4 team went to the Meet of Champions. I’ve been doing that race for the longest time, so I want to get my time down and PR for that.

The 800 (that broke the Woodbury Relays record last spring and won this year’s Group I indoor title) should be pretty cool, too. Katie Deal graduated so we don’t have her anymore and she was a big part of both those races, but we think we’re still going to be pretty good and solid with (returnees Kayla Ayars, Seiden and Arie Still) and we can keep working and improving our times and we can still be in that same good place.

RSN: Do you have an idea where you want to go for college and will running be a part of it?

SS: Now is definitely the time I should be researching more than I am. I think I’m just trying to learn about all types of college to see where I want to go and see what interests me. I do want to run in college.

Cover photo: Sarah Seiden runs the hurdles for Woodstown (L) and cross country for Salem Tech. (Submitted photos)