 | Twin sisters (from left) Alexandra and Nadia Sawicki and Laura and Kate O'Neill all have different personalities, but each woman's team spirit makes her "an ideal person to have on our team," says cross-country coach Mark Young. |
It's not unusual for spectators at Yale's women's cross-country meets to wonder if they might be seeing double as the pack of runners charge by.
Then, just as the spectators recover from their first moment of bewilderment, they find themselves confounded again.
There is usually a pattern to these meets. First, senior Kate O'Neill comes running by, followed within a second or two by her twin sister, Laura. Other Yale runners then pass, including junior Alexandra Sawicki. On her heels is her twin sister, Nadia.
Occasionally, however, this pattern is broken, and then, even fans of the team who know about its two sets of twins can get confused.
"Usually Al is ahead of me in races so people have come to expect that," explains Nadia Sawicki. "So if I'm ever in front of her, people sometimes call out her name as I'm running, thinking they are cheering her on. But that's okay; I just take the encouragement they're giving her and use it to charge myself up to run a bit harder."
The O'Neills are equally nonchalant about which sister is ahead. "If I come in second to Laura, I'm not unhappy as long as I've run well," comments Kate O'Neill.
For women's cross-country and track coach Mark Young '68, that attitude is what makes the women runners "wonderful" team players. All four are members of the fall season cross-country team and the winter (indoor) and spring (outdoor) season track team.
"Each of them is an ideal person to have on our team," says the coach, stressing that he wants to avoid "lumping them all together."
"Each has a very clear sense of commitment and responsibility to the team and works for the good of the team, and it's a delight to have them on it because of that quality," he continues. "They may have different personalities, but they are not different about that."
Before the Sawickis joined the O'Neills on his team, Young had occasionally coached a single set of twins during his 23 years at Yale; however, this is the first time he ever had two sets of twins on his running teams. He says he never has trouble telling the sisters apart, although he admits that identifying the Sawicki sisters was a bit of a challenge for him at first.
"Now I'm used to it," he says. "As their coach, I obviously notice how they run and can tell them apart simply by that. With Laura and Kate, for example, I know that they hold their arms differently when they run, so I always know who's who that way."
All of the girls are accomplished runners, according to Young, noting that Kate and Laura O'Neill are among "the best collegiate runners in the country ... perhaps Yale's best female distance runners ever." Both of the O'Neills are two-time Cross-Country All-Americans; Kate is also an All-American in indoor and outdoor track, and Laura won All-American honors for outdoor track. In the 2002 NCAA Cross-Country Championships, Kate finished 11th -- the highest ranking ever for a Yale student in women's cross country -- and Laura finished 26th. Laura took third place at the 2002 Outdoor NCAA Championship in the 10,000-meter run (10K), while Kate ranked fifth in the 5,000-meter (5K) race. The sisters also hold Yale records: Laura for the 5K in indoor track and Kate for the 5K in outdoor track.
The Sawicki sisters have also made impressive progress as runners since arriving at Yale, Young says. Unlike the O'Neills -- who took up running as their sole sport in high school -- Alexandra and Nadia also played soccer in high school, and devoted only one season each year to running.
"They are good, solid runners who, because they played a second sport, don't have quite the same background in running as Kate and Laura," says Young. Alexandra was Yale's fifth-place runner in the cross-country national competition last year, and Nadia has made steady improvement in her running, he adds. Nadia was the alternate runner at Nationals.
For both the O'Neill and the Sawicki sisters, part of the enjoyment of running is the camaraderie that it brings, whether they are running with their twin or with other members of their team.
"Long runs can be boring when you are by yourself," says Alexandra Sawicki. Her sister, Nadia, adds: "In distance running, it's great to have someone you can train with, which is why I think it's common for twins, or siblings, to do it together."
All four runners particularly enjoy the sense of team spirit among their fellow runners at Yale and say they never cease to be amazed at the diverse interests and accomplishments of their teammates. "We always have neat things to talk about," says Laura O'Neill. "We can all be running out in the woods and having a conversation about a subject like ancient philosophers, for example."
Both the O'Neills and Sawickis have no other siblings, and, like many twins, each woman has much in common with her sister. Kate and Laura O'Neill, who hail from Milton, Massachusetts, are both majoring in history and share a love of reading, especially an interest in children's books. Alexandra and Nadia Sawicki, natives of Atlanta, Georgia, are both majoring in English, share an interest in Victorian literature and count cooking as one of their favorite hobbies. While the sisters have shared a number of Yale courses, they live in separate residential colleges: Laura O'Neill is in Trumbull College; Kate O'Neill and Nadia Sawicki are in Timothy Dwight College; and Alexandra Sawicki is in Saybrook College.
The twin sisters' differences, all four admit, are sometimes harder to pinpoint. After some thought on the subject, Kate O'Neill says of Laura, her elder by two minutes, "She is better at focusing when she studies; she absorbs material faster." Returning the compliment, Laura says, "Kate is the neater twin."
While Kate is particularly interested in early modern English history and is contemplating law school down the road, Laura is fascinated by colonial American history and is considering graduate school.
Nadia Sawicki says her parents describe her as "the more stubborn twin," a characterization she only half-heartedly agrees with. Alexandra, who is a half-hour older, says, "Nadia is just a little bit smarter." "But Al beats me in races," Nadia chimes in.
Like the O'Neills, the Sawickis say that their paths may also diverge after college. While both are considering attending medical school and spent the past summer working in a hospital emergency room, Nadia is much more certain that medicine is in her future. Alexandra, on the other hand, would love to spend some time living in England and conducting research related to British literature.
Whatever their future paths, both the O'Neills and the Sawickis plan to continue running, and all hope to better their performance in different events. They enjoy their daily three-hour practices for cross country and don't even mind the 7 a.m. running practices in the gym swimming pool that are a part of their training.
Each set of twins also appreciates having the other on the team. "They are the first twins I've gotten to know really well," says Laura O'Neill.
While the O'Neills graduate this year, there's a chance the Sawickis may still share the running fields with a set of twins next year.
"I'm working on recruiting another set of twin runners," says Young, noting that the twins he's coached have shared one beneficial quality: "Twins have a symbiotic concern for each other, which always makes them wonderful teammates."
-- By Susan Gonzalez
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