Haley, Jesse and Kelsey Langton all grew up loving soccer, but track and field is what they each decided to pursue in college.
By Mary Ann Tarr
Haley, Kelsey and Jesse Langton share a number of things: a birthday, a last name and—most important to them—a love of track and field.
After graduating from Notre Dame High School in 2011, the triplets currently run at Lafayette College, James Madison University and Mount Saint Mary’s University, respectively.
Yet, they aren’t the only members of the Langton family who have been logging miles through the years. Mom and dad have been going the distance, too.
Nancy and Brian Langton of Hamilton Square have watched the odometers on their vehicles increase at amazing speeds while their children have each been swiftly racking up the miles as members of their college track teams. A great deal of planning goes into their trips.
“Every season, we sit down with the schedule and review all three of the schools,” Nancy said. “There is some overlap where the kids are at the same meet. We mark those as our ‘must do.’ Then, we review the schedule and decide to attend together or to split up the schedule. Our goal is to equally attend as many as possible. Keep in mind our season runs from August until May. We are rarely in New Jersey on the weekends.”
Brian and Nancy have enjoyed the journey.
“My son’s college coach once asked jokingly about us making his XC meet,” he said. “He told his coach that he doubted we would be able to show up. As he was finishing his sentence, we passed their van headed to the meet.”
The end of the road for the Langtons—the athletes and their parents—is on the horizon as graduation dates for all three children appear on the upcoming schedules. It’s the end of quite a ride for all of them.
After attending the same schools growing up—Little Friends Preschool then Our Lady of Sorrows then Notre Dame—it became apparent that they would land at different colleges.
“We started searching in (their) junior year of high school,” Nancy said. “We visited 30-plus colleges and used family vacations plus travel soccer trips as opportunities to visit nearby schools. The kids applied to 22 schools and had numerous choices. They looked at many of the same schools. It settled down to big school, small school, nearby. Each one of the kids had their own preference and saw themselves in a different place. It worked out well based on personality.”
The Langton triplets were multi-sport athletes at Notre Dame High School, and track and field was not necessarily a top priority when they arrived at the campus of the Catholic school in Lawrence Township.
“During the kids’ high school years, my husband attended 100 percent of the meets,” said Nancy, who travels with work obligations about 40 percent of the year. “During high school soccer season, we would split male and female, game to game.”
Soccer was originally the sport of choice, and the game still remains beautiful to them. However, their high school track coach made a big impression on them.
“Coach [Joe] McLaughlin definitely had an impact us because he knew before we even ran in our first meet that we all had potential to be good runners, and he made sure that we knew it too,” Haley said. “I think it takes a good coach to really make their runners understand how much of their success comes from how confident they are in themselves.”
After helping the Irish to be successful in soccer and track, the confident Langtons moved on to help the Dukes of JMU, the Leopards of Lafayette and the Mountaineers of Mount St. Mary’s.
Jesse, a distance runner, said track’s growing importance in his life has been an interesting experience, though soccer is still on his mind.
“I enjoy running with my teammates and competing against some great teams throughout the country,” he said. “But soccer will always be a big part of my life. There is not a day that goes by where I wish I could still be playing, and it is truly a sport that I will always have a passion for. I try to play every chance I get and during the summer, I play in a men’s league in Mercer County. With the end of my cross country and track and field career approaching, I plan to play more often since I will have more free time.”
He is planning a career in business and will juggle his sports activities around that. Although Jesse graduates this month, he’ll be able to run cross country for one more season while he pursues his master’s in business administration at MSM.
Haley, who is part of Lafayette’s record-holding 4×400 team, did not intend on running in college. Soccer was her first love, but when college coaches came calling about her skills on the track, she gave the idea a little more thought.
“I knew I wanted to compete at the Division I level, and running track would be my best bet,” she said. “I still play [soccer] here and there, not competitively, but once I graduate I plan on joining a pick-up league. Running Division I track is like taking up another major because it’s so time consuming. You have to really love it to stick with it for four years.”
Haley plans to continue running after she graduates with a degree in art.
“It has been such a part of my routine for so long now that it would be hard to stop,” she said. “I’ll probably get back to running competitively in the future at some point.”
Like her sister, Kelsey is a relay runner, except she participates in the 4×800. Initially, though, she only joined the track team in high school as a way to keep in shape for soccer.
“After my first season of track, I realized I really enjoyed it and knew I wanted to continue to pursue running competitively,” said Kelsey, a health-science student. “Unfortunately I do not play soccer anymore because of my time commitment to track and the potential risk of injury. Running has become such an important part of my life that I don’t think that I will ever stop, but I think competitive running will be something I will get back to later in life.”
The triplets entered the world in one-minute intervals: Haley first, then Kelsey, and finally Jesse. They’ve all been striving to be first ever since.
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