Former Hopewell Standout Lauryn Speicher Battles Obstacles to Accomplish Big Things with Niagara Track and Field

Former Hopewell Viking Lauryn Speicher made quite a name for herself as she was a standout athlete in soccer and basketball.

In track and field, Lauryn set a Hopewell record in the 200m and the 4×100 in which she was the anchor. Speicher also qualified for the WPIAL and the PIAA Championships three times in the 100m, 200m, 4x100m, and the 4x400m. During her 4 years in Coach Jeff Brunton’s program, Speicher was a 6-time sectional champion.

Speicher isn’t wasting any time doing the same in her first year at Niagara University.

Hopewell Sports Nation wants to congratulate Speicher for a huge accomplishment at the recently completed MAAC Championship Meet.

Speicher along with her Niagara teammates Sapphire John, Deborah Borysewicz and Hannah Adderly-Julien were MAAC Champions of the 4×100.

Back in April, those four women also broke the school record in the 4×100 (47.17). An exciting aspect to that is that these 4 athletes are so young (3 freshman and a sophomore).

This accomplishment is even more impressive when you take into account what Speicher and her teammates had to deal with at the start of the year.

Right before the start of the season in January, their head coach accepted another head coaching job and left Niagara. While it was a good opportunity for him, it left the athletes with a coach for their events.

“Coming in as a freshman with high expectations for setting personal bests and to set record as I did in high school, this was a setback,” Speicher tells Hopewell Sports Nation. “As many people might now know, with us not having a sprint coach, our 4×100 was coached and planned almost entirely by myself and the other 3 girls on the relay.”

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#ForeverViking #GOATViking @lspeicher13 competed in her first collegiate outdoor meet yesterday in Myrtle Beach. She ran the second leg on her 4×100, and then handily won her heat of the 200m with her best season opening time of 26.15 @NiagaraXCTF pic.twitter.com/cJqSrrpvea

— Hopewell Track & Field (@Hopewell_TnF) March 17, 2024

“We got together and went through handouts and gave each other advice in order to perform the best we could. Despite only running the 4×100 two times before, we set a personal best by over a second running 47.17 and breaking the school record. This was one of the only meets the team had that it was not raining, snowing, below 35 degrees, and or all of the above due to the going to school in Buffalo. So, it was a relief knowing we took advantage of the warm weather and performed well when the opportunity was presented.”

Having accomplished that record-breaking feat, that gave Speicher and her teammates a ton of confidence and momentum heading in the conference championship meet.

“Setting the record gave the relay a lot of confidence going into the MAAC Championship that next week,” said Speicher. “We were seeded No. 2 going into the finals only behind 0.29 of a second, so we knew it was going to be a good race. The race was pretty close for the majority of the handoffs but on the last exchange, we were in second place. I saw our anchor get the baton right behind the girl in first place and knew she was going to get the job done and cross the line first for the title.”

“Even though our relay team consisted of three freshman and a sophomore, the confidence and relationship we had with each other played a big part in the outcome of the race. Since I run the second leg, I was not able to see who had crossed the line first until I heard Niagara announced and on the scoreboard that we had won the title. I jumped up and immediately started aimlessly sprinting around trying to find one of my relay members to celebrate. We all ran up to one another and gave each other a massive hug and ran over to our team as they were cheering for us also.”

Speicher tells HSN that this was the highlight of your young and promising college career

“It was the most rewarding feeling to receive that gold medal next to my best friends,” said Speicher. “All the obstacles and challenges we faced with no sprint coach, bad weather, and no university track to train on. At times it was hard, but we didn’t let the adversity get the best of us and instead used it was motivation to succeed.”

Congratulations Lauryn on this amazing accomplishment and best of luck in the future!