Oxford track star Orrell has plenty of options

By Steev Riccardo

Oxford - As Jordan Orrell prepares for her fourth and final outdoor track season and third as captain, the Oxford High School senior has a pretty important decision to make.

Orrell has been accepted to four major colleges and is in the process of deciding which one to attend. The one thing that is certain is that she wants to be an Athletic Trainer.

One of those schools is the University of New Hampshire. “I Love UNH and I’m leaning towards them. We visited the campus in October and it was the perfect atmosphere. It is an absolutely gorgeous school and there are so many things I can branch off into there.” 

Although she is more focused on her education, and UNH is a Division 1 school, she hopes to somehow continue running track at some level simply because it’s what she does.

The 400-meter wiz kid comes from a family of runners. Her mother and father, Cheryl and Scott, were both runners in high school.  Cheryl ran at Millbury High School, while Scott ran at Blackstone Valley Tech.

“I am a family girl so I do a lot with my family, which is why track is so important. It was something that my family and me all adored.”  She  has two younger brothers who look up to her, and are also starting to talk about track. 

Orrell started running on the high school outdoor track team as a freshman. “That was a really good thing for me. It was good start, I ran with a lot of the seniors and I became really involved and I absolutely loved it.”

“I was new here (Oxford) but I became close to some of the seniors. One of them was Noelle Richards, who runs at WPI. She is a great athlete and I admired her running and we became really close.” 

When Richards graduated, Orrell had to take a leadership role as a sophomore. She embraced the opportunity and started making her own mark. She was eventually named the youngest captain of her team as a sophomore, which was “really big” for her.

Orrell also became very interested and excited about the 400-meter dash, and that became her main event. She worked hard at it and made it a goal to be the best.

In her junior year all the work paid off and she broke the Oxford High School record in the 400-meter dash. “It was the best feeling to achieve that because I was trying to get there for so long.”

Orrell has also been named a Southern Worcester County League (SWCL) All-Star two years in a row.

Even though she prefers running outside because she doesn’t “like the confinements of being inside,” she also started running for the indoor track team as a sophomore.

Those confinements didn’t keep her from being a key contributor. This past season she competed in three events at the Division 4 Districts in February and at the SWCL Championships, where she was in four events and placed in all, including a second place finish in the High Jump.

Following some encouragement from team members and coaches, she joined the high school soccer team in her senior year and was glad she did because it was a fun experience for her.

Orrell attributes her interest and success in athletics to the friendships she has made with teammates.

“Emily Dawidczyk and I became friends and we do a lot of the similar events together.  We also played soccer together and she is a great athlete. I like being able to share an interest with people and I like being a leader. It makes me feel good about myself and it helps me to help others.  I am really close to the athletes. We have a lot of fun together; we have “Cupcake Tuesday” as a little reward for ourselves.”

Orrell was also a dancer for 14 years but gave it up before her senior year to concentrate on track and to make sure she gets into the right college. She was also a cheerleader for the football team in her sophomore and junior years.

As if all this wasn’t enough, Orrell has maintained excellent grades and is part of the National Honor Society, a member of the Student Council, and also a four-year member of the theatre club.

It’s been quite a four- year career for the senior and, of course, before moving on to college Orrell hopes to beat her own school record in the 400-meter dash.  Sounds like a sure bet to us.

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