Maddie winning the 3k at the Hispanic Games. (Photo by Kyle Brazeil)
The No. 1 priority to winning a big-time race is to first get into the seeded heat where you are given the opportunity to be pushed to the limit with the very best in the field.
Competing as a tenth-grader in the unseeded section of the 1,000-meter run at last year’s New England Championships, Maddy Berkson threw that notion out the window. She never gave it a second thought that she could pull out the improbable victory.
“It was interesting,” recalled the Classical High (R.I.) junior. “I didn’t have a very good state meet last year. I ran like 3:05 so that didn’t qualify me for the seeded heat. But I knew that two weeks before (the New England meet) so I was preparing myself running in the unseeded heat that I would be running for time, and alone. That was really a lot of mental preparation. I knew I had the training. It was just a matter of doing it.”
Berkson not only did it in the March 2 race at the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center, but ran a seven-second PR and broke the New England mark by more than two ticks of the clock with a triumphant time of 2 minutes, 50.11 seconds.
Berkson’s effort at the New England’s proved the formula that’s all too familiar to coaches – the strength to succeed not only comes physically, but is a mental process as well. Then again, that’s something the 16-year-old runner has been proving all along, ever since she first walked through the doors of the Providence school she calls home.
“If she’s close in any race, I feel like she is going to win,” said Classical head coach Michael Green. “That competitive nature that she has is unbelievable.” (Photo, right, by Steve Mazzone)
Green was talking about his star athlete, one that will soon have her name etched alongside all the other extraordinary distance runners that Rhode Island has produced lately, during a league meet with East Greenwich and Bay View at the Providence Career and Technical Academy field house Thursday night. It was a meet that Berkson easily captured the 3,000 in 10:54.
Less than a week earlier at New York City’s famed Armory, Berkson made a statement of some potential special happenings in the near future by establishing what was then the nation’s top clocking for the 3K with a winning time of 9:53.75 at the Hispanic Games on Jan.5. (She is now US#3 following Mary Cain's amazing all-time HS 9:02.10 and Katie Knight's 9:36.23 in the same race.). She took command with 400 meters left to outdistance sophomore runner-up Bella Burda of Arlington, N.Y., by more than three seconds en route to a new R.I. indoor mark.
“If you watched the race there was a lot of jockeying back and forth,” Green said. “Bella would kind of get in front of her and drift her wide. Maddy really feels if she had run that race in lane 1, if she ran a clean race, she believes she would have run even better.”
Berkson’s quick rise to the top of the rankings is partly due to her work during the off-season, particularly this past fall. During a time when nearly all of her rivals are hustling along on the cross-country trails, Classical’s most-versatile athlete is out on the pitch, playing her first love of soccer.
But unlike the previous two years, Berkson did double duty this year by logging about 30-40 miles per week in the morning before hitting the soccer field after school.
“Never did we expect what she did (at the Hispanic Games) just because historically the last few years we have been together she peaks about national time,” said Green, making reference to the New Balance Indoor Nationals (NBIN). “Our practices and our workout schedules are geared to peaking at that moment. We still believe she hasn’t peaked yet. It’s definitely all the work she did in the summer and in the fall. I just think that if history kind of repeats itself she is going to be even better as the season goes on, barring any unforeseen hurdles that come up.”
Berkson ran some occasional open cross-country races and even competed in the Foot Locker Northeast Regionals where she finished 53rd overall.
“This year the fall training was a little different. Usually I just do soccer and that’s it,” she said. “This year I incorporated a lot more cross-country type training, endurance work while doing soccer which is kind of a lot. It has really been paying off.”
Berkson, a straight ‘A’ student at Classical with a workload that includes all AP classes, has demonstrated amazing versatility in track and field. She has the speed to uncork a 56-second leg on the school’s 4x400 relay squad, has tossed the javelin more than 111 feet and has long jumped a best of 19-1/4.
She feels her best ability to excel lies in the middle-distance events, primarily the 1,500 and the 800. Berkson has posted not-too-shabby times in those events, too. In last year’s outdoor state championship, she upset pre-race favorite Molly Keating of La Salle Academy in the 1,500 with a PB and R.I. mark of 4:27.92. Her best in the 800 came at the NBIN where she took fourth overall with an impressive time of 2:08.87.
Berkson considers her performance at the indoor national’s one of the highlights of her outstanding career. New Jersey’s Ajee Wilson took the crown at 2:06.58. She was followed by Mary Cain of New York in 2:07.26. Cain is now being coached by legendary U.S. marathoner Alberto Salazar.
“I had been reading about all these high school greats,” Berkson said. “It was great to actually run with them in the 800 at the Armory, which I like. That was a really great race for me.”
Berkson’s talent was first discovered as a youth. She attended junior high at the Gordon School in East Providence and by the summer of eighth grade registered times of 10:15 for the 3,000 and 4:43 for the 1,500.
Green patiently awaited the special runner he would be coaching.
“I was told by a lot of other people that are very involved in middle-school track that we had a runner coming in and she is going to be terrific,” he said. “When she showed up as a freshman, I didn’t know her and I am a teacher in the building. When she came out for the indoor season we kind of saw each other out. That freshman year I really didn’t know what we had.”
What Green saw that first season was a runner that not only had the talent, but the work ethic that goes with being a top-class athlete.
“She’s very dedicated,” he said. “In all my years of coaching track, she is probably the hardest-working athlete I have ever had. She’s a very focused young person…academically, too. Just everything she does. She’s terrific.” (Photo, left, by Steve Mazzone)
Berkson instantly made an impact her frosh season on the indoor surface, winning both the 1,500 and the 1,000 at the state championship. During her sophomore campaign, Classical’s finest displayed her blistering kick at the outdoor states when she exploded the final lap to overcome a 40-meter lead by Keating.
“Molly kind of went by her and at some point Molly wasn’t getting any further and we noticed that Maddy was starting to close the gap with about 300-meters left,” Green said. “That final turn it was just her. That’s what she does. If she can keep it close, she’s going to try and catch you and she usually does.”
For the first time in recent memory, Classical has a good chance to capture its first indoor crown. But they will attempt to accomplish that feat without Berkson competing in the long jump, an event she would no doubt be favored to take the gold.
“We want to win as a team, but not at the detriment of someone’s health,” Green said. “There is a takeoff and a landing. It’s a very explosive event. When they land, it’s hard. It takes a lot out of their legs. A sprinter can deal with that more than a distance runner. We needed to back that off. It’s a discussion that wasn’t always agreed on. It took some time between us and the coaching staff to agree not to do it. It’s all for her health. Our job is not to mess things up. If she is long jumping, it’s not beneficial for her as an athlete.”
Another tough decision for Berkson could come within the next month. She has the potential to run a qualifying time for the mile at the Millrose Games, which are unfortunately held the same day as the R.I. state meet on Feb. 11.
Berkson already hinted that her heart will more than likely bring her to Providence where she’ll try and lead her squad to a team title.
“That’s a tough conflict. There are a lot of conflicts like that this indoor season,” she said. “But I like the state meet. It’s a lot of fun. I would really be missing it if I go to Millrose. It’s a good crowd, a good track, good people here. It’s nice.”
If a Millrose opportunity should arise, Green’s hoping Berkson’s unselfish actions are not unnoticed.
“If she qualifies for it, I just hope if she goes to the state meet that that is something that is recognized by other people,” he said. “This is someone that has put her team first. We understand it’s a very prestigious race. You only have high school once and this is our best chance to win something that we have never won, an indoor state championship. If we can do that and she can be part of that, for her to make that decision to put her team first that’s worth mentioning, I hope.”
Right now, Berkson is also undecided if she’ll play soccer her senior year or compete in her one and only cross-country season.
“I am not sure,” she said. “It’s going to be a tough decision for the fall. I really like the way the training has been going during cross country. I am kind of leaning towards that.”
“Whatever she does, we are supportive of her,” Green said. “If she plays soccer, I just have my fingers crossed that no girl slide tackles her or she’s playing on some big field and there are big divots from a football game before. That’s all I can hope for that she ends a season healthy and happy. But if she chooses cross country, I will be ecstatic. That would be great. If she does that, the sky is the limit what she does.”
The Classical coach is well aware that athletes like Berkson don’t come around too often
“Classical is fortunate to have her,” Green said. “I am very fortunate to have her as an athlete. It’s great. She is a great ambassador for Classical High School. Whether she knows that or not, she is.”