Marple sisters key to Wellsboro track

The sisters share a room, they enjoy spending time together and in nearly every sport they are teammates.

"It's good, we get along very well," Mackenzie Marple said.

"We have always shared a room," Alex Marple said. "We played basketball together and now track together and next year we will play volleyball together."

As close as the two are, they are also very competitive, and in track and field they get a chance to show that as they compete against each other in the hurdles.

"It's OK, but it's kind of frustrating sometimes," Mackenzie Marple said. "It's hard sometimes because she has been working at this two years longer than I have. I just try and work to catch her."

Mackenzie Marple, who is a freshman, is just learning the event at the varsity level, while her sister is among the better runners in the league in the hurdles. Still, Alex Marple knows that her sister is quickly gaining on her.

"I always have to be listening for her," Alex Marple said. "I don't want to lose to her. Especially since I've been doing this for two extra years."

For both girls it is helpful having the other in the event.

"I try and help her along quite a bit," Alex Marple said.

"She will watch me and tell me what I am doing wrong and help me a lot," Mackenzie Marple said.

And, when one of them struggles, the other is always there for support, just as Mackenzie Marple was when Alex Marple fell over a hurdle at the Mansfield Invitational.

"She is very supportive," Alex Marple said. "At the Mansfield Invite I fell over the second to last hurdles and she was very supportive. She ran right up to me and put her arm around me."

"I felt so bad for her, I didn't know what to do," Mackenzie Marple said. "I just wanted to try and make things better for her."

While the two are always so close and supportive of each other, Mackenzie Marple doesn't know what will happen if she ever beats her sister.

"That would be really different," Mackenzie Marple said. "I probably wouldn't be allowed to stay in the same room. It probably wouldn't be very pleasant at home. We are both very competitive."

Alex Marple believes she would be OK if her sister beat her, it just would be hard.

"It wouldn't be that bad," she said. "It would be different, but I'd eventually be OK with it."

For now the two are just enjoying the chance to continue to spend time together.

"It's awesome. We are very close and we get to be together a lot," Alex Marple said. "It's fun getting to run with her."

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