Rochester Track Star Follows In Sister's Footsteps
ROCHESTER (KDKA) -- Rochester High School already boasts one Olympic medalist, Lauryn Williams who won a silver medal back in the 2004 games in Athens.
There may be a future Olympian both at Rochester and in the Williams family. Erikka, the youngest of seven Williams' children, just had a good showing this weekend at the state track and field championships and may be following in Lauryn's fast footsteps.
Senior Erikka Williams has already won a lot of medals in her short track career.
"She's pretty much comes home with all gold medals at all the big invitational events," Rochester High School track coach Devan Parise said.
In fact, just last week, Erikka set the highest mark you can reach, winning four WPIAL gold medals.
"It felt good," Erikka said. "I didn't consider it, didn't know I was making history."
And over the weekend, she added to her list of accomplishments, placing third in the state in the 100 meter, and second in the state in her favorite event, the long jump.
"As I got older, other events got boring, so why not something else," Erikka said.
Her results already have people comparing her to her older sister. Her coach says the similarities are scary.
"Everything," Parise said about what the sister's have in common. "Her attitude, her personality. Every time I talk to Erikka, I feel like I am talking to Lauryn, just Lauryn is obviously a little more mature with her age, but other than that, they are exactly the same."
As for following in Lauryn's footsteps, the Olympics seem like something Erikka would love to do, but she's too modest to expect that to happen.
"I want to be an Olympian, but we'll just see where it goes," Erikka said. "I'm just going to take it from college. One step at a time. I just want to get better."
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