Twins tearing up the track

And find time to ace lessons

If not for Meagan Paracholski’s mouthful of braces, it would be impossible for someone who just met her and her twin sister, Carly, to tell the pair apart.

And the similarities don’t end with their apperances. The Paracholski twins excel side by side on the soccer pitch, the volleyball and basketball courts, the flag football field, and, perhaps most impressively, on the track.

Despite not being members of any track club, Meagan and Carly have built quite the resumes after only two years of running competitively at Meadows West School, where they were co-student council presidents in their recently completed Grade 8 year.

“In the future we might want to join a track club,” said Meagan, “but right now we’re too busy.”

She isn’t kidding. The 14-year-old sisters have qualified to run in the North American Finals of the Hershey’s Track and Field Games in Hershey, Penn., from Aug. 2 to 5.

After one day at home to recharge their batteries, it’s off to Strathcona County, Alta., to represent Manitoba in the Western Canada Summer Games.

As the youngest members of the team heading to Alberta, the twins aren’t putting too much pressure on themselves to achieve certain results.

“It’s more of an experience for us this year,” said Meagan, who is running the 800-metre. “Next year, it’ll be more of a competition. I won’t come in last, hopefully.”

Carly, who is entered in the 1,500-metre, laughs at her sister’s lack of confidence, which she says is nothing new.

“She always says that.”

Their father, Randy, has also seen this doubt before – usually before one of his daughters blows past the rest of the field en route to a gold medal.

“They’re nervous wrecks before races, but afterwards they’re bouncing off walls they’re so excited.”

Considering how little coaching they’ve had on the track, it’s clear to Randy that his daughters have plenty of natural talent as runners. He says their biggest strength in other sports is their ability to simply outrun the competition.

“We get better results (on the track), but we like to play team sports,” said Carly, who pointed out that you have no one to fall back on in an individual sport like track.

As they prepare to enter Sisler High School this fall, Carly and Meagan are looking forward to joining the track team – even though, as Carly points out, that means 6 a.m. practices five days a week.

Even with all the time taken up by their athletic pursuits, the twins managed to find time to win academic honours at Meadows West.

Their mother, Kathy, who manages the girls’ soccer team that Randy coaches, is most proud of the academic achievement.

“That’s really the most important thing,” she said. “The rest is just a bonus.’