Norwin grad Emily Brozeski becomes master of ‘multi’ tasking for Duquesne track and field
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The Brozeski house in North Huntingdon was always lively. With four girls following the lead of parents who were college athletes, there was always some “sporting event” going on in the back yard, even football and wrestling.
“Not your average ‘girl’ things, I guess,” said Emily Brozeski, 22, noting she and her siblings — Aleks (20), Bella (18) and Brandi (16) — “had a little tomboy” in them.
So when Emily got to Norwin High School, it wasn’t a surprise that she excelled at track and field, where she competed in sprints, high jump and long jump. During her sophomore season, Knights assistant Megan Duncan, a Norwin alum and former track and field athlete at Penn State, suggested to Brozeski that she might be good as a “multi.”
That term flummoxed Brozeski.
“I didn’t even know what that word meant,” said the Duquesne junior. “She’s like, ‘The heptathlon and pentathlon.’ Still, I’m looking at her blank-faced. What is that? I never even heard of it until she brought it up.
“Once I started going on college visits, all these coaches kept saying, ‘I think you’d be a great pentathlete/heptathlete,’ and they kept using the word ‘multi.’ ”
Brozeski knows the term well now, and her performance at Duquesne has given rise to another “multi” use: multi-gold medalist.
Brozeski captured her first Atlantic 10 indoor pentathlon title in February, and, this weekend, she is defending her A-10 title in the outdoor heptathlon. She won the conference championship in the event last season with a school-record point total of 5,122.
She also has one more season of eligibility to try to become a multi-school record holder. The Duquesne record for the women’s indoor pentathlon is held by Brozeski’s current event coach, Shannon Taub. Brozeski has the No. 2 mark.
For the uninitiated, the indoor pentathlon consists of the 60-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, long jump and 800. The outdoor heptathlon includes the 100 hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200, long jump, javelin and 800.
Brozeski’s background in hurdling, sprinting and high jumping is what convinced coaches of her potential as a multi. She wasn’t necessarily sold at first.
“I just remember being like, ‘Oh my gosh! I only know how to do two of these events,’ ” she said. “Freshman year was definitely a growing year.”
She cited the 800 and the javelin as perhaps her “weakest” events, particularly the 800 because, to a sprinter, the 800 seems like a marathon. The shot put, meanwhile, is the event, she said, has given her the most satisfaction. She went from throwing under 10 meters to her current best of 12.52 meters.
“A lot of hours behind that, and that’s what made it sweet,” she said. “You have this image of these huge, strong girls throwing the shot put, so I went into it a little nervous. I really tried to focus on the weight room and tried to get my numbers up.”
Dukes coach Jeff Gibson has come to expect those kinds of strides from Brozeski. He said he even uses her as an example during team meetings.
“The bottom line is she’s just a good athlete,” he said. “But probably one of the best things about her is she’s just a tireless worker. We have kids who will come to practice and do what you tell them to do, but once they leave, they’re done for the day.
“There’s a reason why she’s as good as she is. … It’s all the little things she does away from the track: going to the trainer, getting treatment, making sure she eats right, making sure she’s sleeping, making sure she’s stretching. She doesn’t leave any stone unturned.”
Though she has made her biggest impact as a multi, Brozeski still competes in single events: the 400-meter relay, open long jump, open high jump and open 100-hurdles. On April 5 at Robert Morris’ six-team invitational, she won the 100 hurdles (14.86 seconds), placed second in the shot put (12.52 meters) and fourth in the long jump (5.32 meters).
She knocked off her heptathlon rust at Bucknell the weekend of April 14. (Because of the grueling nature of the event, she said, she does the heptathlon at only two or three meets each spring.) She placed eighth overall despite opting out of the 800 as a precaution after tweaking a recurring ankle issue.
Her marks in the shot put and 200 were tops among the heptathlon competitors.
Of course, she still has some competition with her sisters. Aleks competes in long jump for Slippery Rock, so the two often compare distances. As younger siblings will do, Aleks makes sure to let Emily know when she posts a better mark.
Next year, Bella Brozeski will compete in track and field for IUP, so the sibling rivalry will get another college layer.
As much as they enjoy besting one another — Emily admits she uses Aleks’ jumps as motivation for her own — they also are each other’s biggest fans. While Emily was competing in the A-10 indoor pentathlon finals, Aleks was winning the indoor long jump at the PSAC championships.
Emily said she and her coach were tracking Aleks’ marks on their phones in between pentathlon events.
“As soon as she was done, she called me, and I was crying on the phone,” Emily said. “It’s very rewarding and almost sweeter to see someone you love win rather than yourself.”
Winning another title of her own is on Brozeski’s mind this weekend, but she wasn’t about to take winning for granted.
“I do have a sense of confidence,” she said, “but, at the same time, I’m trying to be right back to last year. I didn’t have any gold medals going into the (indoor) heptathlon, and I had that hungry spirit in me, so that’s what I’m trying to get after this time.”