Quietly Excellent

Holliston has been harboring two very well kept secrets in their sporting community. In fact unless you are a cross country or track and field athlete or parent of one you probably would know nothing about either secret. These secrets are Emmaline Berg and Rosie Keogh. They represent two of the best athletes ever to grace the halls of Holliston H.S. What a shame they do not get the recognition of their counter parts on the football field or basketball courts. Not that either of them would be caught dead telling anyone about their accomplishments themselves. But their coaches will, and to anyone willing to take listen.
Both excel in the class room and in their sport. Emmaline will attend Dartmouth College in the fall and Rosie will be off and running at Wesleyan University. Both will compete at this level.

Emmaline has clearly established herself as the best shot putter in the state this year. Her 42' 6" performance at the TVL Meet on January 31st is several feet further than the next best thrower in the state. She followed that performance with a meet record at the MSTCA State Elite Meet the next day with a throw of 41' 9.25" more then 2 feet better than the second place thrower. Emmaline has been embedded in the upper levels of the state throwing ranks since she won the Division III outdoor championship her sophomore year at 37' 4". Emmaline has steadily improved each year including winning the indoor Division III as a Junior with a meet record 41' 2.5", All State win of 41' 8.25", and a 4th place finish at the New England meet. Currently the Dystat rankings (the prominent high school track and field website) will have Emmaline ranked in the top 10 nationally. While this site is never all inclusive it is a good measure.

Rosie is a distance runner competing in one of the nations' hot beds of female distance runners. This has not stopped her from working her way into the top tier of this outstanding group. Rosie began to show signs that she may be something special as a sophomore when she broke the then magic 12 minute barrier at the coaches invitational and then improved on that at the Class III Indoor meet with a personal best 11:53.39 for 7th place. Since then it has been a fast and furious ride. As a junior Rosie established her dominance in the 2 mile in the TVL league breaking the Conference meet record at 11:14.92 and placing second in the mile at 5:26.62 just off the league record. She accomplished this all within 30 minutes. As a junior Rosie placed 2nd at the Class C meet in what is her personal indoor best of 11:13.47 and followed that up with a 4th at All States behind 2 of the top 5 two milers in the nation, and 8th at New Englands. Outdoors Rosie continued to improve running 3rd at Class C in her outdoor best of 11:09.01 At the TVL Conference meet on Jan 31 she repeated as champion in the 2 mile and took second in the mile. Less then 24 hours later she ran a season best at the MSTCA Elite meet for 3rd place at 11:15.33 less then 2 seconds off her best. This was an important run because it is only the second time on the big banked track at the Reggie Lewis Center this year. Her time this weekend also puts her in the top 10 on the Dystat rankings. Unfortunately for Rosie she will face several of those top runners in all of the big meets to come because they are from Massachusetts. In addition to Track Rosie is also the best cross country runner in the league. She completed the fall season with a 4th place finish at the Division III meet and a 4th place showing at the All State meet, this is the best ever showing by a TVL runner. She previously went through the regular season meets unbeaten and won the conference meet with a meet and course record time.

There is a reason why these two young ladies are so outstanding at their sport. Commitment, which includes a enormous work ethic, excellent attitude, strong but balanced priority, focus and courage. Talent is the only wild card but talent alone will not create the success these two have enjoyed. The drive to be outstanding and the commitment to make that happen are the special ingredients that separate Emmaline and Rosie from the field. And with all that said they are still top notch students with widely varied interests which makes them true examples of what is great about being a student athlete.

Good luck to them both during the rest of this season and in the spring.