FAIRLESS HILLS – No question about it, during her entire high school career, former Methacton track and field standout Ryann Krais was in a league of her own.
As Methacton veteran track and field coach Rob Ronzano is quick to point out, Krais was ‘the most gifted athlete to ever come through our Methacton School District.’
She was also one of the best ever in the entire state.
A 2008 Methacton graduate, Krais continued to chase her Olympic dreams first at UCLA for two years, then transferred to Kansas State, where she is now a post-grad and still training and pursuing her heptathlon Olympic goals, with her target now the 2016 Rio Games.
But Pennsylvania has not forgotten about Krais, who was inducted into the Pennsylvania Track and Field Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility last weekend during a special ceremony at the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association (PTFCA) State Indoor Track and Field Championship at Penn State University.
Of course, Krais was more than thrilled to fly in from Kansas for the induction ceremonies.
‘It was definitely a surprise when they first let me know,’ Krais said when reached shortly after the ceremonies. ‘I remember from high school that award ceremony going off, remember hearing about some of the athletes I really had looked up to being inducted. It was just so neat now having that moment up there.
‘The best part, for sure, was standing there with coach Ronzano, who has been such a big part of my life and my career, and one of the coaches pointed over to the side. I looked over and all the Methacton girls were holding up Ryann signs. That was a really neat surprise. It was very special.’
Yet it wasn’t really that surprising since all the Warriors girls on the track team always strive to emulate her.
* * *With offers from just about every top collegiate program in the country, Krais accepted an athletic scholarship to continue her academic and athletic career at UCLA, where she promptly made her mark at the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships, winning the silver medal in the heptathlon, finishing behind Vanessa Spinola of Brazil.
As it turned out though, California just wasn’t for her. After her sophomore year, Krais transferred to Kansas State University where she found total happiness in Manhattan, Ks.
* * *Fast forward to now, with Krais turning 24 on March 21.
‘I still live in Manhattan, on campus, finishing up grad school and still training with my college coach,’ she said.
She is going after her master’s degree in kinesiology and is training for the heptathlon – like the mad woman she’s always been – at K-State under the guidance of Wildcats veteran head coach Cliff Rovelto.
‘I can’t compete for the NCAA championships anymore because I don’t have eligibility there,’ she said. ‘But now I am running for Nike so I can compete in any of the USA championships, including the Olympic Trials and any open meets or invitationals. I’m allowed to compete in all of those.’
Her Olympic aspirations have not faded one bit as Krais is still very much in pursuit of the 2016 Games.
‘Oh, yes,’ she said.Krais came so close prior to the 2008 Games that it made her seem a slam dunk for the 2012 London Games. However, hampered for a month by health issues, she finished seventh in the Olympic Trials.
‘I was struggling with some injuries that year,’ she said. ‘Tests also showed I had a low iron level. You work your body so hard. And with an athlete’s mentality sometimes you just don’t know when you need that rest and recovery. I know I tend to overdo it. A lot of athletes do too.’
Last summer Krais was back on track, finishing fourth in 2013 USATF Senior Women’s Hepthathlon (5,957 points), and is ready to move up higher this year.
* * *It has been quite a 12-year ride for Krais from her soccer and basketball playing days in middle school before adding track only as an off-season sport in the seventh grade. It came with instant success. After eighth grade, she qualified for the AAU nationals in Des Moines and won the 400 meters.
The wins, gold medals and championships on every level just kept piling up from there on. Still, she is determined to add a few more and on the highest track and field stage – the Olympic Games.
It seems that Krais couldn’t have dreamed that her success would have gotten her this far. But she did.
‘I’ve always been a pretty big dreamer, always had hopes for the Olympics,’ she said. ‘I definitely think the support system I had along the way really enabled me to pursue this dream. Throughout my whole experience I just had person after person reinforcing – this is a possibility. So right from the start, that’s what I have been dreaming about.’
* * *Currently Krais is also the manager for the K-State track team.
‘So I am spending a lot of time on the track – both training and helping them to get through their practice, as well as going to school,’ she said.
Krais will graduate next winter, but will she stay in Manhattan after that?
‘I’m not opposed to staying there, I’m not opposed to coming back to Pennsylvania,’ she said. ‘For now, while I am training, I’m in a really good situation. A great coach, a great facility, great training, great friends. Right now, Manhattan, Kansas is probably the best place for me to pursue my goals. And for the time being, I am completely content in Manhatten.
‘Nothing will ever be able to replace Pennsylvania. Both of these places have a special place in my heart. My family and my roots are here in Pennsylvania. There’s a lot of special people here that I need to come home and visit every summer and sometimes during the year.
‘And I have a godson here.’ she pointed out proudly. ‘Ronzano’s little boy, Zachery (16 months), is my godson.’
Ronzano could not have been prouder standing there with Krais at Penn State last week.
‘There is a story or memory behind each medal, record or accomplishment that was read at her induction, but the real story is the woman that she has become,’ Ronzano said this week. ‘Throughout her high school and college career, parents, coaches and athletes would always tell her or I what a pleasure it was to watch her compete. Always gracious before and after a race, but when the gun sounded, she became a determined athlete who left every ounce of energy on the track. She not only won, but she did so with so much class.
‘Two words came to mind during her introduction: Pride and Blessed. I have never been around an athlete that has made her family, friends, coaches, community or school more proud. Not only is she a blessed person, but all of us that have known her, feel in some way we are as well.’
For Krais, Ronzano was the coach who first inspired, nurtured and drove her to evolve into the athlete she has become.
‘I was telling a couple of girls on the team now early today, the passion he has for the sport just totally motivates a high school athlete to perform well beyond what you would expect of them. That’s the coolest thing about Ronzano. He just cares so much. And that’s really how I got through high school how I did. I just constantly had that positive support which I needed.’
* * *Krais and Ronzano will also have that track and field connection. similar to Krais and K-State coach Rovelto.
‘They are very, very different people, but they are the same in how they are passionate about helping their athlete reach their goals,’ she said. ‘Ronzano and coach Rovelto both have my best interest in mind as an athlete and I really respect that in both of them. However, their dynamics are very different,’ she said with a laugh. ‘Ronzano is very excitable and coach Rovelto is very calm and collected.’
That is because Ronzano is all Pennsylvania and Revolto represents the lay-back heart of Kansas, But both have pushed and guided her, in their way, to the standout track and field athlete she has become, and Krais knows.
