Jianna Molin looks like an overnight success. But as is usually the case with those over-nighters, the Nottingham High rising junior has been working at track and field for about half her life.
Thanks to a lot of effort, a lot of talent and a little thing called puberty, Molin absolutely exploded on the scene this past school year.
She set school indoor records in the 55 meters (7.3, taking second in the Mercer County meet) and 200 meters (26.3, taking third in the counties). Molin also broke the Nottingham outdoor mark (in the 100 meters) in a dual meet with Notre Dame and lowered it several times since. Her latest standard is 12.1. And in winning the Group II 200 meters championship, she set yet another Northstar record with a sprint of 25.2.
Along with all that, she won the 200 in the Mercer County meet, and the 100 and 200 in both the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group II sectional and Group II state meets. And she qualified for the New Balance Nationals in the 100 and 200.
Asked if she was blowing her mind with all she has accomplished, Molin calmly said “Honestly, I really am. Those records seemed so far away, it just seemed really crazy. I’ve been training in the summer, putting in all the work and it’s finally paying off. It was really shocking and exciting to see how far I’ve come.”
It’s almost like the changing of the guard on the corner of Klockner and Hamilton, as Georgia-bound Shamali Whittle competed in his final year at Nottingham while Molin ran in her first season there after transferring from Steinert.
And while the two weren’t best buds due to the age difference, they were friendly with each other and sprints coach Curtis Whittle said his son would pass along a tip to Molin “only when needed.”
“She gets along with everybody and she’s a pretty hard worker,” Whittle continued. “There’s not a lot she really needs, per se. But Shamali is an inspiration just because of what he does.”
Ain’t that the truth. A school record-holder several times over, Whittle is the guy any sprinter would want to watch. And Molin knows it.
“Whenever he’s warming up, whenever I take a look I always keep in mind what he’s doing and compare that to what I’m doing,” she said.
How much that helps is anyone’s guess, but at the rate Molin is going, she will be the one that teammates sneak a peek at in future practices.
“I don’t want to put an expectation on it,” said Whittle, who coaches the sprinters along with Bernice Amaris, “but I think she should be one of the top girls in New Jersey when the dust settles; and should have some pretty good recruiting interest next year.”
Not bad for a girl who was having an average career running cross country and middle distance races with the Trenton Track Club in middle school.
Molin grew up in Queens, N.Y. and joined her first track program at age 7. The family moved to Hamilton when she was in sixth grade and Jianna joined the Tri-State Elite Track Club before switching to Al Jennings renowned TTC three years ago.
It was there she first met Shamali and Curtis Whittle, and also became friends with Hopewell Valley High standout Lucia Garcia-Beltran.
By the time Jianna got to Steinert, she had gone through puberty and had, according to Whittle, “emerged a different person with a different body; with more hips, a more sprinter-centric type body. More twitchy.”
It was the body of a sprinter, which is what she did as a freshman at Steinert, but without much success. Nevertheless, she knew she was doing the right events.
“It was a realization,” Molin said. “After I hit puberty, it wasn’t my time to do distance. Last year was kind of a learning year, understanding how to get out (of the blocks). It’s not just sprinting, there are mechanics to it..”
Molin took what she learned at Steinert and added to it under Whittle’s tutelage.
“He impacted a lot of my learning,” she said. “He’s taught me basically everything I know now. He’s a great coach.”
Curtis basically coached Shamali growing up, and his rising star should be confirmation enough about Whittle’s skills as a coach. He knew of her distance running at TTC and like the Steinert coaches, knew that was a thing of the past.
Despite the fact he saw potential in the sprinter, Whittle wasn’t expecting all the great things that have happened.
“Not quite so quickly,” he said. “But everything you feed her she really takes to it and takes it home with her. Not a lot of athletes do that. They come to the track during the day and that’s the one or two hours they put in. But she takes it home, like schoolwork. We will give her the equipment to take home to do homework and she does it.”
One thing that has aided Molin is the development of “quick twitch” muscles, which help runners get quick bursts.
“Twitch muscles are cornerstones for sprinters,” Whittle said. “She’s moving toward that side where she is becoming more explosive. Also, part of her strength, for lack of a better word, is that she’s an assassin. If it’s between her and somebody else at the line, I’m betting my money on her.”
In looking at what Molin is best at, Whittle feels that it is currently the 200 but that could change.
“The sky’s the limit for both,” he said. “I’d say eventually it will be the 100 meters. She’s not very tall. She’s 5-4 so she’s not long. We’re gonna work on her posture. She pulls too much, so it makes her shorter and that can lead to injury.”
It’s one of several tweaks the coach will have to make, as despite her success, Molin still has things to learn.
“It’s her second year of sprinting so she’s definitely very raw,” Whittle said. “We stress a lot of body mechanics, a lot of technical things. Because we drill it so hard, she has really taken to it.
She trains hard, she’s a go-getter, and she’s very personable. She becomes friends with her rivals.”
One of those rivals is Garcia-Beltran, who was unable to run in state competition due to a stress fracture. But she attended the Group II meet at Franklin High School and was waiting at the finish line with a bouquet of flowers and a bracelet for Jianna after her victory.
“Even though they are rivals, they train together and are friends,” Whittle said.
“When I got to see her, it was such a sweet gesture,” Molin said. “It was really sad not to have her running with me.”
After winning two events in states, Whittle and Molin had to decide on whether she would compete in the New Balance Nationals or the Meet of Champions, as both fell on the same weekend.
They opted for the nationals in Philadelphia on June 18-19, where Molin finished a disappointing 35th in the 200, but ended up 12th in the Rising Star Division in 12.33. She just missed the finals after entering the competition ranked No. 57 in the nation.
Her time was the second best of her career, but Molin had mixed emotions about the weekend.
“To be honest, I didn’t do as well as I liked,” she said. “My nerves got the best of me. But I did enjoy myself, getting to see friends I haven’t seen in a while was nice, and just the atmosphere.”
It’s an atmosphere that fuels Molin.
“I love just being around it,” she said. “It’s so exciting, hearing the crowd in your ears. It’s nerve wracking but so exciting.”
And while she was disappointed in her finish, Whittle had a little different take on it.
“She really wanted to get into that Rising Star finals,” the coach said. “She missed it by three 100ths of a second, so that’s tough. But all things considered, it was a nice capstone to an awesome season for a sophomore. She’s already geeked about getting after 2023.”
Nottingham High star sprinter with Jianna Molin with Lucia Garcia-Beltran and coach Curtis Whittle.,
