With training schedules that include up to 50 miles of running a week, cross country runners often have a lot in common with their teammates. But four of the leading runners at the West Windsor-Plainsboro high schools do their sharing 24/7. At South senior Katie Kellner has led the girls for the past three years. Now she is joined by her sister, Caroline, a freshman whose contributions to the team’s success are already evident. For North twin brothers Jim and Joe Rosa have been making headlines since last season, when they were freshmen. Both have already broken records, and their sophomore year has barely gotten underway.
And not surprisingly, the parents of both sets of siblings are just as dedicated, involved, and excited when it comes to supporting their children.
In the Kellner household, running is a major part of life. Since the girls were younger, the Kellners have participated in many charity 5K events together, along with Steve Kellner’s sister, who brought along her children, says Anne Kellner, the girls’ mother.
“When I first started running, Caroline was about my speed, when she was in the fourth or fifth grade,” she said. “That only lasted a couple of weeks. Eventually she was faster than me. Now they’re there at the end of the race cheering me on.”
Those events were probably Caroline’s first introduction to running — that and seeing her older sister having so much fun running for the middle school. For Katie, her parents always knew that she was a runner, and a quick one at that.
The Kellners moved to West Windsor 17 years ago, before Katie was born. Anne and Steve Kellner met at Villanova, where both attended college. Steve, whose father was an executive at ITT, is originally from northern New Jersey. Anne, whose parents worked for Social Security, is originally from Allentown, PA. Steve currently works as a portfolio manager for bonds and works for a subsidiary of Prudential Investment Management. The couple first moved to Lawrenceville for a couple years, and then moved to West Windsor because of the school district.
The Kellners’ house has a staircase in the middle, with space that could enable children to run around through the surrounding rooms. When Katie was 3 or 4 years old, she would run around the staircase whenver she got excited. “We started calling them victory laps,” Anne Kellner said. “She would just run.” She even ran to the bus stop with her backpack as a young girl, she added.
Growing up, Katie was shy and did not participate in many social activities. Anne Kellner said she became concerned her daughter was not getting enough physical activity, and told her when she was in the seventh grade that she had to get involved in something, preferably a sport. “I said, ‘You should try cross country,’ because I had heard that it was not as competitive as track,” she said. “I knew that she always ran everywhere. They had done the mile in gym in fourth and fifth grade, and she had done fairly well with that.”
And from there, it became obvious that her mother’s observations had rung true — Katie was a natural runner. She began coming home with news that she had finished first in many of the races in which she ran. And, her social skills also opened up. “Track has just made her so much more confident in all aspects of her life — in her school work, in her dealings with others,” Anne Kellner says. “It’s just been wonderful for her.”
Last season, Katie placed 11th at the Meet of Champions at Holmdel Park. On October 8, she took first place, with a time of 18:40 on the 3.1-mile course at Veterans Park in one of the team’s most important meets of the season. Caroline finished six seconds after her sister, with a time of 18:46, for third place. And both also did well, as expected, at the Shore Coaches Invitational at Holmdel Park on October 4, helping their team finish second overall in the ‘B’ Division race. Katie took first place, and Caroline took fifth.
For Anne Kellner, who has a background in pharmaceutical research but currently stays at home, much of her day was filled with driving the girls to meets — for the last few years it involved taking Katie to South meets and Caroline to meets with Grover Middle — cooking healthy dinners, and everything else that comes with the territory. She usually makes a protein dinner two nights before the girls have a race, and follows it up with carbohydrates, usually pasta, the night before. In fact, Caroline made her confirmation on Friday, October 3, at St. David’s Church. Because of the Shore Coaches Invitational, she had to be sure the celebration party back at her house contained spaghetti and meatballs.
That’s not the only sacrifice the family makes, Anne says. “It’s very, very fun, but it does change things,” she said. “We used to be big skiers. If we get one ski trip in a year now, that’s lucky. If we do, they still have to find a spot to run everyday.” She recalls the family took a skiing trip last Christmas, and Katie had to run nine miles one day on the treadmill, and then go out skiing.
The girls do have busy schedules, and when they get home from running, usually at six, they only have time to eat and do homework, and then head to bed. “I always want them to get to bed early,” she said. “They need to be rested to perform well.”
Aside from eating healthy and getting enough sleep, the girls do not talk much about the race before it happens, they don’t really have specific ways to prepare, and they have always practiced separately, Anne Kellner says. However, Katie always sleeps backwards on her bed the night before her race, she jokes.
Caroline started earlier than her sister, in fifth grade. “When Caroline was in middle school, and Katie was in high school, Caroline would watch Katie’s races, and she’s really been chomping on the bit to get to that level and compete there,” says Steve Kellner.
He says he doesn’t see the girls having competition against each other, but rather, more as a race against the clock, and, above all, to help the team do well.
Now that Katie is a senior, she has started looking at colleges, and has gone on official visits to three — Princeton, Duke, and Cornell — and is now in the process of deciding where she would like to go.
For Larry and Pat Rosa, things in their household are pretty similar. The twins started running track in sixth grade. Larry Rosa says he got them involved to help stay in physical shape and form for baseball and basketball, and it simply turned out that the boys were pretty good runners. By eighth grade they saw they had a pretty good chance of being successful in high school, but Larry Rosa says he and his wife never expected their sons would break state records, especially so early in their high school careers. Like the Kellners, the brothers aren’t competitive with each other, but both have the appetite to push themselves to do well for the team, Larry Rosa says.
Larry Rosa, whose father was a Harvard MD and mother was a stay-at-home mother with 10 children, was born in Puerto Rico, and met Pat, who is originally from Brooklyn, in Puerto Rico when she was visiting. At the time, he was working for Citibank International, and since he had to travel to New York often for business, the two would meet up, and they began dating. He then moved here to marry her, and he says she “changed my life for the better.” The two moved to West Windsor, and he became a tax attorney. Pat, whose father was an accountant, became a registered nurse, but now helps Larry with his at-home law business.
The twins have two older siblings — Larry, who is a senior in college, and Kiki, who is a sophomore in college — both of whom swam in high school. Larry Rosa, who swam himself, says both of his other children also broke state records for swimming while they were in high school. His oldest son ended up going to Rutgers on a swimming scholarship, but Rutgers cut the program two years after he began. All of his children have always been dedicated, similar to the Kellners’ practice and training habits. Jim and Joe “run 50 miles a week, but my older children swam 50 miles,” he says.
He says he would hope the twins pursue sports in college, because it makes for a better college experience. Since he already has had to go through the experience with his older son, he offers his advice to parents of older members of the team who may be going through the same process, and looks forward to it himself when the time comes. That is still off in the future, since the boys are only sophomores.
He says that for now, he just wants to watch his boys continue to grow, especially under the leadership of the older runners, including Tyler Corkedale and Jon Squeri and Coach Brian Gould. “They’ve just been so nice to our boys, and the spirit of the team is just something that we’ve been enjoying,” says Rosa, who videotapes the whole team during meets, not just his sons. “I just hope when my boys are juniors and seniors, they can be as helpful to the freshmen and sophomores as these young men have been to them.”
As for Jim and Joe, they say it is not strange having gone through the years on the same team, and on the same level as each other. “This is how it’s been for a long time; it’s pretty cool,” said Joe Rosa.
The team is, in fact, ranked second in the state. The Rosas stormed the Shore Coaches Invitational, helping their team take first place in the ‘B’ Division race, with Joe Rosa’s record-breaking time of 15:38, passing the prior sophomore course record of 15:46. Jim Rosa took fourth place, with a time of 16:17, and already broke a record himself — last season, he became the third freshman in the state’s history to win a sectional title with a time of 16:21:1, and at the Meet of Champions last spring, he placed sixth and broke a freshman record with a time of 9:11.56. They followed it up with a win on October 7 at Veterans Park, ahead of crosstown rivals, South, who took second. Joe placed third at the race, with a time of 16:48, followed by Jim, who also finished with 16:48. Stephen Ellwood, Ryan Sleeper, Kevin Foy, Tyler Corkedale, and Jon Squeri took all of the spots behind them for the win.
Jim Rosa says the brothers do not really talk much before a big race because “we’re both focuses on the race, and it will just take our mind off it if we talk to each other,” he said.
The boys also, by nature of being twins, also have the same friends, meaning they do spend a lot of time with each other outside of cross country. Joe Rosa says his own personal goal is to win the Meet of Champions whether it is this year, or down the road. With a sectional championship under his belt already, he is also preparing for groups.
Jim Rosa says what he likes most about running track and cross country is that there is “a direct correlation between how hard you work and how good you get.”
