Kratzberg collected medals for Sailors
Emma Kratzberg did not grow up thinking she wanted to be a runner. She was actually more comfortable in the water, where she would swim in the summers with the neighborhood Newport Hills Swim Team.
“It was kind of a random leap of faith,” Kratzberg said. “The last week of summer [before high school], I randomly told my dad, ‘I want to do running.’”
The leaps that Kratzberg takes nowadays are over hurdles, as a junior for the Newport Harbor High track team. She’s become quite adept at it, if the medals she earned at last weekend’s CIF Southern Section divisional finals at Cerritos College are any indication.
Kratzberg, the Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week, secured three medals for top-six finishes. She was fourth in the girls’ Division 2 300-meter hurdles in a personal-best 44.24 seconds. She was sixth in the 100 hurdles in 14.83, and she teamed with Paige Fults, Lauren Loucks and Hope Bender to take fifth in the 4x400 relay in a school-record time of 3:56.37, lowering their own record time from preliminaries the week before.
“I had a little rainbow,” Kratzberg said. “Green, yellow and purple [medals].”
Unlike Bender, who set the Orange County record in the 300 hurdles in 42.51, Kratzberg did not quite advance to Friday’s CIF Southern Section Masters Meet. She was close, finishing 11th in the 300 hurdles among all divisions when she needed to finish top nine.
The UC Santa Barbara-bound Bender and Kratzberg are already the top two girls’ hurdlers in program history, but Kratzberg still has a year left. That can provide her motivation for next year as a senior, when she said her goal is to advance to the CIF State Meet, like Bender has this season. Newport Harbor Coach Eric Tweit wouldn’t bet against Kratzberg.
Tweit has seen her blossom since she transferred from Corona del Mar High following her sophomore year, after setting the CdM school record in the 100 hurdles (15.49) as a sophomore.
“I mean, she’s got such a positive attitude,” Tweit said. “She’s always smiling, and I don’t think we’ve ever had anybody who just thoroughly enjoys working out and competing as much as she does. She really kind of upped the ante. All of a sudden, these girls had worked out hard, and she came along and they were like, ‘Oh, I guess we can work out harder.’ She loves to compete.”
Kratzberg got a late start this season, per CIF rules, she had to sit out the first 30 days after transferring from CdM. She said sitting out was tough, mentally and physically.
She didn’t make her debut for the Sailors this season until the prestigious Arcadia Invitational. Kratzberg didn’t want to talk about her reasons for transferring from CdM, but it is clear that she has found a home competing across the bay at Newport Harbor.
That 4x400 relay team became very close throughout the season.
“We’re all friends outside of track, too,” Kratzberg said. “Hope has probably been my best friend throughout the entire year. We went cliff-jumping into water on a random weekend. Lauren and Paige and I have gotten really close as well … Our team had a great dynamic, that we could boost each other back up and get each other back on our feet, and run the best we could. I know that the team helped me a lot, because they motivated me.”
Tweit said that Bender and Kratzberg could have been adversaries, competing in the same events, but that was the furthest from the truth. He said instead, they became great friends and pushed each other throughout the season.
“For me, the biggest thing with Emma is that I just every day have someone who’s pushing me,” Bender said. “I’ve never really had that at our school before. I was always just kind of running workouts and stuff by myself. So just to have her every day has been the biggest help for me.”
Kratzberg agreed that the relationship with Bender has been a very valuable one for her. Earlier this season, they went shopping together for the “Superman” socks that the members of the relay team wore during all of their big races.
“It’s funny, because most people say that you’re enemies during the race and then friends as soon as the race is over,” Kratzberg said. “For me, I never saw her as an enemy. I just saw her as someone who’s there with me so that I can do the best that I possibly could. If I didn’t have her, I would have not been anywhere near as good as I was this year. And when she’s gone next year, I’ll have those times to chase after instead of the actual physical person.”
Kratzberg, the oldest of three children, is setting a good example for her younger siblings. James is a freshman thrower at Orange Lutheran, while Jonathan is in sixth grade at Mariners Christian School.
Her younger siblings will see Emma more in the headlines next year.
“My main goal is just to get to state,” she said. “It’s safe to say I’m prepared to work as hard as I possibly can to get where I want to be. I’d rather quit than do it halfway. Most people complain about track and the work that goes into it and everything, but I like it. Coming out here and running isn’t really a chore for me; it’s more fun.”
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Emma Kratzberg
Born: July 23, 1997
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-6
Sport: Track and field
Year: Junior
Coach: Eric Tweit
Favorite food: Chicken
Favorite movie: “The Avengers”
Favorite athletic moment: Setting a personal-best by two seconds in the 300-meter hurdles this year at Orange County Championships.
Week in review: Kratzberg medaled three times in the CIF Southern Section Track and Field Division 2 finals at Cerritos College, finishing fourth in the 300 hurdles, sixth in the 100 hurdles and fifth in the 4x400 relay with teammates Paige Fults, Lauren Loucks and Hope Bender.
