Sophie Trzaskus wants to be a doctor. Tristan Jusino-Lansing hopes to be a teacher and coach. But having admirable professional goals are not the only positive trait the Lawrence High School seniors have.
Both were hindered by nagging injuries that affected them last spring, both qualified for the NJSIAA Meet of Champions this past winter track & field season and both are looking for a big spring season.
After finishing third in the Central Jersey Group III sectionals with a pole vault mark of 9-0, Trzaskus tied her school record of 9-6 to finish sixth in the Group III state meet. She earned a wild card berth to the Meet of Champions, her first trip to the big meet.
“I didn’t think I would qualify,” she said. “It was crazy. (Cards coach Tim) Collins texted me, it was kind of surreal. I remember I was painting my nails and I freaked out. I told my mom “Guess what! I made Meet of Champions.” She said ‘I don’t even know what that is but congratulations.’”
Jusino-Lansing got to his second MOC by automatically qualifying. He finished second in the 55 meter hurdles in both the CJ and CJ III meets with times of 7.66 and 7.58.
His Meet of Champs effort was a disappointing 12th place finish in 7.71 but he made up for it at the Eastern States Indoor Championships with a third-place finish in a PR time of 7.47.
“Meet of Champs wasn’t my best race,” Jusino-Lansing said. “Going to Easterns I was really praying for it. I was like ‘God whatever I do just let me glorify you.” In prelims I ran 7.6, I hit the hurdle and that was close to my PR, so I knew I would run something crazy that day. In the finals, I didn’t hit any hurdles so I knew the time was gonna be great when I crossed the line. The loss in the Meet of Champs just made this one sweeter.”
“I think he ran an average race at Meet of Champs and at Eastern he just lit it up in the finals,” said Collins, who helps Nate Jones with the boys team. “It was fantastic. You knew without even looking at the watch it was a great run.”
Trzaskus and Jusino-Lansing both strive for greatness and have a passionate love for their track & field.
Trzaskus began the sport as a freshman along with classmate Zuzanna Trzasko. The two are close friends who have helped push each other over the years, which was especially important when Lawrence lost its pole vault coach after their sophomore year.
“We depend on each other a lot, just taking videos and watching YouTube videos to correct our form,” she said. “We also go to Vertical (Adventures in Southampton), their coaches were college coaches so they really helped us.
“I think our relationship is really important. We’ve known each other for so long and on a bad day we’re there for each other. Just having someone to talk to that can relate to track is amazing.”
Collins was impressed at how the girls wanted to keep working at it after their coach left.
“They’ve been going to a private coach, but really they’re just coaching each other with what they know and have just been really successful at it,” Collins said. “At a time when girls pole vaulting sort of tapered off after Covid, these girls have been really good, and Sophie especially.”
Trzaskus was a gymnast prior to high school, which gave her a solid background for pole vaulting.
“I wasn’t scared of going upside down and twisting, so that helped,” she said. “Our freshman year coach that year (Kevin Kamp) said we should try the pole vault and it clicked right away.”
As a sophomore, Trzaskus took third in the Mercer County meet at 8-0 and third in CJ III at 9-0. After losing her coach, she said “I did really well my sophomore year, I just didn’t want to give it up.”
Last year she and Trzasko went 3-4 in the Mercer County Indoor Championships and Trzaskus won the CJ III championship. In the outdoor season, She tied the school record with a jump of 9-0 to finish third in the county meet, but an injury prevented her from competing in sectionals.
During this year’s winter season, practice was limited early due to cold weather and Trzaskus wasn’t expecting march.
“But I cleared 8-6 and I was like ‘Wow, I have a chance to do really well this season,’” she said. “After that I just kept getting better and it was surreal.”
That same 8-6 mark enabled her to win the Colonial Valley Conference gold medal, and she and Trzasko set the school pole vault relay record with a mark of 17-0 in the NJSIAA Group III Relay Meet. Trzaskus also set the school individual mark with a vault of 9-6.
In CJ III she went 9-0 to finish third against a more competitive field than a year ago thanks to the addition of Moorestown to the section.
She equaled that mark in the Meet of Champions and tied for 18th, and is brimming with confidence heading into the outdoor season. Collins felt she would have qualified for states last year had she not been hurt, and is excited for this spring.
“You never know when someone is gonna go up in a jumping event,” the coach said. “Ten feet seemed high a year ago but the fact she did 9-6 multiple times and is getting in better shape is a good sign. With the warm weather coming I absolutely think she can do well in sectionals and states and go to the Meet of Champs.
“She’s very athletic. I think this confidence will help quite a bit. She jumped 9-6 indoors, she only jumped nine-feet outdoors (which is tied for school record). Obviously you think she’ll match it and exceed it.”
Trzaskus has narrowed her college choices to Montclair State if she does track, and Rutgers if she just wants to focus on academics as a pre-med major with hopes of being a pediatrician.
Her goal for the spring season is to clear 10-feet and qualify for the MOC.
“I just want to keep doing better,” she said. “Keep working.”
Work is the key for Jusino-Lansing as well.
He started hurdling in sixth grade but “I wasn’t that good” as he ran close to 20 seconds in the 110 high hurdles. After a year away due to Covid, he was still struggling at 19 seconds in eighth and ninth grade. He cut it to 15 as a sophomore and then transferred from Brick Memorial to Lawrence.
“That whole summer going into junior year I was working out every day,” he said. “Five days a week I was at the track. If I wasn’t there I was watching videos, studying all the top people. I knew I really wanted to make it.”
Jusino-Lansing admitted it was initially tough making friends as a new arrival at LHS, but track teammate Jermiah Flores “welcomed me in, showed me around, introduced me to people.” One of those people was Jones and the hurdler told the coach how excited he was to compete.
“When track started it was easy because everyone around me had the same passion,” Jusino-Lainsing said. “We wanted to see everyone get better. Especially indoor track. It’s less people, it’s so close, it’s like a family.”
Collins wasn’t surprised the junior blended in so easily.
“He was a super nice guy from the start, very positive, very coachable,” he said. “He always wants to try things – ‘Put me in the dash, put me in the four by four.’ There’s no ‘I don’t want to do that because it will hurt me in my events.’ He’s team oriented and great to be around.”
And not a bad hurdler, as he proved in the winter of his junior year. Jusino-Lansing won the 55 hurdles gold medal in indoor track (7.81), took third in the Group III championships and got to the MOC as a wild card, where he finished 12th. He took sixth at Easterns with a season-best time of 7.69.
Last spring he was fifth in counties, third in sectionals with an outdoor PR time of 14.7, and seventh in states. But aside from Jones and Justino-Lansing, no one knew the issues he was dealing with.
“I had back spasms that started around April,” he said. “It was really painful. Every time I hurdled it hurt. For the most part I was running with pain.”
He took a month off after the season and began physical therapy. After feeling a tinge of pain to start this year’s indoor season, it disappeared thanks to all his core work.
“My first day back hurdling it was super nice,” he said. “I was able to fully push it. It felt way different, way quicker. But I still didn’t perform as well as I thought I could for indoor, so outdoor I’m ready to show more of what I’ve got.”
Jusino-Lansing is not only looking out for himself, but for sophomore hurdling teammate Alex Nikolov, who went to the Freshman Nationals last year and ran a school indoor record of 7.26 in the indoor 45 hurdles this winter.
“Alex makes no bones about it, he emulates Tristan,” Collins said. “There’s no better guy to try to be like. He soaks it up and does all the great things that Tristan does. Tristin has a real-life impact on our team. He’ll coach other hurdlers. Give them tips.”
He’s basically getting experience for his potential future career.
“I want to be a teacher when I get out of college and I want to help coach,” he said. “Just helping to coach now I can see what I can improve on. Alex is gonna do great, and just to be able to help somebody and try to put them in a better position, it’s really nice.”
As for his own position, Jusino-Lansing wants to break 14 seconds in the 110 hurdles and get under 55 in the 400 hurdles. He hopes to make Meet of Champions in the 110, and will then go on to run in college as he has interest from Rowan, Rutgers and Mississippi College.
“I have high expectations,” he said. “My back is fully healed and I’m ready to show what I could have done last year.”
Another Cardinal who showed what she could after a tough cross country season was sophomore Izzy Meth.
Meth had an outstanding freshman year in cross country, then swam for the Cardinals but slumped last fall. Opting for indoor track over the pool this year, she came back with a vengeance this winter in the 3200 by taking fourth in the CVC meet, sixth in sectionals and ninth in states. She qualified for the Meet of Champs and smashed her PR with a school-record run of 11:10.
“In cross country she had an injury and she was sick at one point, she never recaptured the magic of her freshman year,” Collins said. “She wanted to stop swimming because she felt she lost a step. The whole idea of indoor was to set her up and get a good base for spring.
“Her workouts started to get better, she started to get a feel for it. In states she ran great and went from 11:26 to 11:15. Then she goes to Meet of Champions and goes down five more seconds. We’re gonna come back and have a fun, successful spring track season with her.”
