By Christopher Hunt
When Nyanka Moise-Joseph joined the track team her freshman year, she said that coach Shaun Dietz didn’t think much of her.
“Dietz didn’t think I had any talent at all,” she said. “But he was still willing to work with me.
Moise-Joseph and Shakele Seaton have been the foundation that Medgar Evers rests on in a year where they’ve catapulted into one of the best track programs in the country. The two track stars also the top two students in their senior class.
Moise-Joseph signed a letter of intent to compete at the University of Connecticut last week. Seaton committed last month to the University of Pennsylvania. Seaton will be honored as the valedictorian this year while Moise-Joseph is the salutatorian.
Both seniors started the year weighing options between Ivy League colleges, but as Moise-Joseph excelled athletically, she began to look for some balance between the track and the classroom. She chose UConn over Cornell.
“When I went to UConn it was like, ‘these are my girls. This is the guy. This is the school,’” Moise-Joseph said.
She made an instant connection with sprints coach Clive Terralonge, a former Jamaican World 800-meter champion. Moise-Joseph had only been considering the Ivy League at the start of the winter season but once she decided to widen her search she realized that coaches don’t always show up to knock on an athlete’s front door.
“I started sending e-mails out,” she said. “I just told coaches who I was and what times I had run.”
What landed Moise-Joseph in a Huskies uniform next year is the sense off family she felt once she arrived in Storrs, Conn.
“They took me bowling,” she said. “I had never been bowling before.”
Seaton, chose UPenn over Cornell, Brown and Georgia Tech. She chose the Quakers for similar reasons.
“There was this sense of togetherness,” she said. “I feel like whatever I needed there was someone to help. There was always aid, if I need it.”
Seaton said her decision to attend an Ivy League school, which doesn’t afford athletic scholarships, aligned with her goal to achieve at the highest level both academically and athletically. She plans to major in chemical engineering.
Moise-Joseph was apart of relay teams that broke New York State record in the 4x200 and 4x400 indoors. Seaton was on the squad that set the state 4x400 mark.
“Everything is happening so fast, you don’t have time to recognize what you’re doing,” Moise-Joseph said. “It’s like damn, we broke two state records. We got into college and there’s still more to do.”