MIDDLETOWN — You might think, looking at Zoe Clark and Olivia Clark line up in the paddock before a 4 x 400-meter relay, that things have always been this way.
You might think the Penncrest seniors have run side-by-side throughout their track careers. That they prefer the same events. That they were a package deal in college recruiting.
You’d be wrong. So much so that at the beginning of last spring, you would’ve found Zoe at track practice while Olivia was on the softball diamond.
This year, things are different for the twins, born one minute apart. They’ve relished the chance to compete together for the Central League champion Lions and on a pair of states-aspirant relays this week at the District 1 Class 3A Championships.
“It makes it a lot more enjoyable to do it with her,” Zoe said of her sister. “I don’t think it would be as enjoyable if I didn’t have her on my relays.”
The sisters charted independent paths in sports. Both had tried a little tennis, a little basketball, some summer swimming. In high school and as a club sport, they excelled in volleyball. But as opposite hitters, they occupied the same niche, often finding one twin subbed for the other at the varsity level.
In spring seasons past, their paths diverged. Zoe – after, as she recalls it, showing speed chasing a lost phone around the house – gave in to her parents’ persuasions that she should give track a try. She got her hopes up in eighth grade to run at Penn Relays before the COVID-19 pandemic intervened, then forgot about track until the next spring when she fell under its thrall. By sophomore year, she was hooked.
“Finding my passion in this was really fun,” Zoe said. “It was always a dependable thing. If I came to track, it would always make me happy and I knew that I could depend on it. Even if I was having a bad day, coming to track would just make me happier.”
Zoe grew quickly on the track. She was second at Centrals each of the last two years in the 200-meter dash. She ran the 200 at districts last year, placing 19th, and is entered in it again this year. As a senior, she was third at Delcos in the 400.
Olivia, meanwhile, gravitated toward softball. But Zoe heard the push from coaches and teammates to get her sister on the team – if Zoe was fast, Olivia must be fast too, right? Olivia wondered the opposite: What if I’m not?
“For a long time, I didn’t really want to run track even though Zoe was good at it because I was scared that people would keep comparing me to her,” she said. “And Zoe’s been doing it for so long that she’s a stronger runner than me, so whenever I would run I thought people were going to be like, ‘oh you’re not as fast as Zoe,’ even if it was a PR for myself.”
A wayward ground ball and a lost tooth during the softball season changed Olivia’s mind. After running indoors as a junior, she pivoted to outdoors late last year, building to a 13th-place finish in the 100-meter dash at Delcos. Another incident shook that conviction, Olivia taking a header in her first 400, pushing a little faster than her legs could go. Zoe was there to pick her up, literally and figuratively.
“After Olivia fell, the first thing I told her was that it happens,” she said. “I’ve fallen many times in a 400 and so had my other teammates. It was just her turn. Her split would have been insanely fast if she had kept up with the pace, so everyone knew she could be good at the 400. I told her that she just needed to run it again.”
The differences show, if subtly, in their preferences – Olivia likes the 200 while Zoe is more at home in the 100. The combination works for the Lions’ relay aspirations. With Olivia’s midseason addition, both relays made states last spring, finishing eighth in the 4 x 100 and ninth in the 4 x 400. Olivia handed off to Zoe in the middle two legs of the 4 x 400 at indoor states this year, the Lions taking fourth. Penncrest was fifth in the indoor 4 x 200, which is not on the PIAA outdoor slate. Zoe finished sixth in the 400.
This spring, they’ve been flexible. Trust in a baton handoff is paramount. So you might expect the sisters to be an unbreakable block. But they’ve found success both running back-to-back or separated by two teammates in the 4 x 100 to fit their skills. The 4 x 400 that finished fifth at Penn Relays’ Philadelphia Area championship involved the twins out front, as did a 4 x 100 that was the Delcos runner-up.
Penncrest’s 4 x 100 relay enters districts ranked 17th in the state. The 4 x 400 is 13th (11th among PIAA schools).
“I can always depend on Olivia to get our relay out strong,” Zoe said. “And then she can always depend on me to close a strong as I can.”
College will take them in different directions, sort of. Zoe started her recruitment first, pulled toward American University by former Penncrest teammate Hannah Puckett. When Olivia’s profile rose, she looked toward the Washington area, too.
Being on the same track team has caused her to rethink her entire frame of twin-dependence reference. As much as she loves being close to Zoe and is fueled by their pre-race secret handshakes, she also understands the importance of striking out on her own. George Washington offered an ideal compromise. They’d be close but on their own campuses, in different leagues but at many of the same meets.
“I really wanted to go to a college that wasn’t the same as Zoe just because I feel like I’ve grown … not solely dependent on her, but we do everything together,” Olivia explained. “So doing something for college separate is nice. But I also was scared to go too far away from her.”
It’ll be weird, both admit, to race as opponents, though measuring themselves against one another isn’t a new sensation.
During a lengthy discussion, the twins showed their shared mental wavelength. But rarely did they fall into stereotypical twin behavior … until one question, about if their college divergence made the last high school meets feel more special, that elicited a nearly harmonized, “yes.”
“It is really like it’s our going be our last year,” Olivia said.
“It’s going to be really sad,” Zoe added.
