Leap of faith lands CT long jumper with acceptance to Penn
HARTFORD — Saryah Winborne found out she had been accepted to the University of Pennsylvania on Dec. 1.
Although she has hit 18 feet in the long jump, Winborne probably could have cleared 18 feet in the high jump that day.
“I was shocked,” she said. “It still is kind of surreal.”
This has been a particularly fruitful year for CIAC student-athletes in track and field. The Sherry twins of Conard, Gavin and Callum, will compete at Stanford. Anna Keeley of Ludlowe will head to Duke, Olivia Birney of Simsbury to Yale and Mariella Schweitzer of Joel Barlow to Dartmouth.
While Winborne finished second to Schweitzer in the long jump at the indoor State Open, she became the first student in Capital Prep history to be accepted to an
Ivy League school through the QuestBridge Scholars program.
She also is a first-generation college student. No one in Saryah’s family has a degree.
In terms of victories, this is an enormous one for the girl from Middletown.
“After going to Capital Prep and Trinity College, I realized some of our top-tier kids, we could push them even more,” said Jordan Green, the school’s director of college and career readiness. “When I met Saryah, I’m thinking, ‘This kid is Ivy League material., She wasn’t aware of it.
“I’m like, ‘You’re going to be able to get into an Ivy League school.’ She’s like, ‘I’m not … I don’t know.’ She comes from a first-generation home like me. The self-doubt. They’re working hard, but sometimes they don’t see where that hard work can take them.”
QuestBridge is a national nonprofit program that links talented low-income students with earlier admission and four-year scholarship opportunities at nearly 50 premier colleges. Of the approximately 20,000 who apply annually, Green said, 1,000 are matched.
“It’s a big deal,” Winborne said. “It’s what I really worked for, in middle school, even fifth grade I worried about going to college and how I’m going to get there. Not everyone gets that opportunity. No one in
my family got that opportunity. I knew what I had to do to make it happen.”
And your mom, Tashique?
“It means a lot,” Winborne said. “She worries. She tries to make sure I’m able to go and everything. She’s worried about everything. And she’s definitely proud.”
In her application essay, one she spent hours on, Winborne would compare her journey to the largest tree on earth.
“My essay was a metaphor,” Winborne said, “basically comparing my personal experience to a sequoia. The hardships I’ve faced and how I’ve been able to overcome them. Obviously, I can improve myself as a person, not just in athletics. But overcoming struggles, I guess, to continue to grow. Struggles like being raised in a single-parent household.”
Struggles like her father being incarcerated.
Wildfires obviously destroy sequoias, yet without fire or insects to crack open the green cones full of seeds awaiting germination, the seeds remain trapped inside. It is part of the metaphor.
“The flame is a gift,” Green said. And the sequoia tree needs fire to grow. The things she has gone through in life, she wrote how they served as a motivation, fire for her. To be able to push forward in life, in school, in athletics.
“Saryah worked two jobs while going to school,” Green said. “A couple of students were here until 10 o’clock working on college applications with me. Extra reps on her jump shots. Working on scoring goals. The long jump. Always looking to work on her game.”
When I asked Saryah how her father’s incarceration and more recent release have affected her growth, she spoke of selfreliance.
“Basically not wait around for something to happen,” she said. “Get it done myself. Not to dwell on things. I think it is why I try to be independent often. I basically don’t wait on someone to do something for me and never for it to get done … I haven’t talked to him in a long time.”
Tashique applied to Capital Prep through the lottery, and the 25-minute drive to Hartford for Saryah has proved to be more than worth it.
“Capital Prep definitely helped me, especially with structure and preparation for college,” she said. “Uniforms, different things. It’s stricter than an ordinary public school. And the two-sport requirement definitely gives you structure.”
The two-sport requirement has taken Winborne on an interesting journey. She had never played soccer before high school. She wasn’t one of those kids who was on the pitch since
age 4. Yet as a senior, she amassed 19 goals to lead her team and the CRAL.
She was a leader on the basketball team as a junior before giving up the game she loved in order to concentrate on indoor track as a senior. She credits former coach Tammy Millsaps, who built a state basketball powerhouse at Capital Prep before moving to New London in 2020, for building her resilience.
“I love basketball,” she said. “Basketball definitely shaped me into the athlete I am today. Coach Millsaps was tough. Middle school basketball was far easier. Being a varsity player as a freshman was a struggle for me. I had to adjust. It helped me to have more heart and not give up.
“She was a pain, but she didn’t give up trying to coach us even when we had our attitudes. You can’t go through the motions. You have to dedicate yourself. Know how to improve yourself.”
The first time the coaches brought Winborne over for track, she long-jumped 15-0. Wow. We may have something special here. Saryah competed in freshman nationals. She continued to work. Box jumps were particularly helpful.
“I could feel myself getting stronger,” Winborne said. “My explosiveness definitely improved.”
She finished sixth in the outdoor State Open last season. That went to second at indoor with a jump of 17-11.25. She finished first in the Nutmeg Games in the 17-18-year-old women’s division. She is CRAL champion. In fact, Winborne has been all-conference in soccer, track and basketball.
She’ll run the 100 and 200 in spring meets, but long and triple jump will be her focus. Her goals this spring include making New Balance Nationals, which will be at Penn’s Franklin Field in Philadelphia in June. She has been to the Penn Relays but hasn’t had a full tour of the Ivy League school where she will study and compete.
“This all started when I applied this time last year,” Winborne said. “For juniors, it’s (QuestBridge) College Prep Scholar. I wrote my essay. It was the first time really that I dug deep into my thought. It was hard. I had to learn new writing skills. I wanted it to be perfect.
“In the summer, I found out I was a College Prep Scholar. Then you have to work to be a QuestBridge Scholar and that was even harder.”
She runs through various people who have helped her. Green, track coach Jerome Strums, basketball coach Aziza May, and then she returns to this spring.
“I definitely want to improve on my PR,” she said. “I want 19 feet.”
The sequoia is always looking to grow.