Speed isn’t a guarantee, even for someone who’s always had it. Zoey Orlando knows that now.
The Immaculate Heart sophomore spent weeks chasing the times she hit as a freshman, trying to find the zone that made her a state medalist. She gave up soccer. She added strength training. She pushed herself in ways she never had to before.
And then, in one hour at the Bergen County Meet of Champions, everything she’d been working toward finally arrived.
Orlando ran a personal-best 11.84 in the 100 meters – the second‑fastest time in New Jersey this season and quick enough to break a 24‑year‑old meet record. Around 45 minutes later, she repeated as the county champ in the 200 in 24.88. By doubling up on gold on May 20, she became the first girl to win both sprint titles in nine years.
“I think this season I’ve been struggling a little bit to hit the times I was hitting last year,” Orlando said. “To do that at this meet, it felt really good.”
Her recent success makes her this week’s North Jersey Female Athlete of the Week, presented by HSS.
The Belleville native already owns seven school records, and she’s only halfway through high school. She won league titles in the 100 and 200 this spring. Over the winter, she captured the Non‑Public A state title in the 55 meters.
Her coach, Matt Joyce, says it all starts between the ears.
“When she sets a goal for herself, she’s willing to go the full route to get it,” Joyce said. “She came in last year with a great attitude and contributed right off the bat. This year she wanted bigger and better things and so far, so good.”
Last spring, Orlando had a training partner and co‑star in Piper Portacio, the Bergen County 100 winner who finished seventh at the State Meet of Champions and now runs at Bucknell. Together, they formed one of the best duos North Jersey has seen.
This year, Orlando is setting her own pace.
“In workouts, I would have her to push me,” she said. “Now it’s on me. I have to come at it more internally and know that I have to push myself sometimes.”
But she’s also become the one teammates look toward. At the Penn Relays, Joyce watched her step into a leadership role typically held by seniors.
“She was the person telling them when to warm up, what to do, what to expect,” Joyce said. “All the girls told me it made a huge difference.”
By now, Orlando knows the drill. Her mother sprinted for Suffern and Newburgh, and after trying a few summer track camps, Orlando sensed she had the same quick-twitch speed.
Last June, at New Balance Nationals, Orlando won the Freshman Girls 100 national title in 11.88 – dropping under 12 seconds for the first time all year.
No win has meant more to Orlando, who became IHA’s first national champion.
“That really stuck with me,” Orlando said. “It gave me a really big confidence boost.”
This spring, she wanted to build on that. She didn’t write her goals down – she keeps them in her head – but she knew what she wanted: to PR, to grow, to be better than she was last June.
Her next test comes May 29-30 at the Non‑Public A state meet at Buena High School, where she’ll try to keep the momentum rolling.
“The thing we’re happy about is that last year she didn’t run that time [in the 100] until the very, very last meet of the year in June,” Joyce said. “The fact that she ran that in May gives us all the confidence in the world that in the future big meets like the state meets, hopefully there will be a chance that she’ll go even faster.”
Zoey Orlando
Sport: Track and field
School: Immaculate Heart
Class: Sophomore Age: 16
Accomplishment: Orlando captured the 100 and 200 meter titles at the Bergen Meet of Champions.
Also nominated: Brianna Depalo of Cresskill for softball and Abby Clark of Mahwah for lacrosse.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bergen Record Female Athlete of the Week: Zoey Orlando, Immaculate Heart
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