Norwin grad Zukina sets PSAC record in 400 meters, has sights on NCAAs next season

While spending her formative years in the Philippines, Bernadette Zukina played a lot of soccer. She attributes her running ability to all of those recess periods playing soccer with her classmates.

It also helped her become a PSAC record holder.

At the conference track and field championship meet last month, the Norwin grad, now a rising senior at Edinboro, won the women’s 400 meters in a meet-record time of 54.77 seconds. The time also is a program mark.

“I really wanted to win, but, at the same time, I was not underestimating my competition,” said Zukina, who was born in the U.S., moved to Cebu City, Philippines, at age 2 to be near family and returned to the Pittsburgh area when she was in junior high. “For me, it’s more about (running a personal record).

“… Even if I placed second and ran a 54.77, I would have been just as happy.”

If there was a down side, it was that her time was not good enough to earn a bid to the NCAA championships. But she has one more year to continue to improve, and if she makes the same kind of leap she did this past season, a trip to the national meet is well within reach.

Fighting Scots coach Jamison Dietrich said Zukina dropped 2 seconds from her personal best in the 400 from last season, a feat he called “not normal.” The catalysts were running more sprints to improve her speed and getting more one-on-one work with assistant Taylor Cudequest.

Between the time Edinboro’s previous coach, Anne Cleary, left and when Dietrich came on board, there was a gap that affected Zukina’s training. She said she was calling her old high school coaches asking for training tips, and she did the best she could on her own. But by the time indoor season was over, Zukina said she was “unbelievably burnt out.”

With Cudequest, she had a plan not only to train more effectively but to stay healthy and fresh.

“He (Cudequest) made an entire summer training plan, and it included stuff that I’m weak in and rehab and stuff like that so I don’t get injured,” she said. “Especially during the season, if I wasn’t feeling well, he would change it up. … There’s no point doing workouts if you’re not 100%.”

In addition, Dietrich had her running the 100 and 200 in certain meets to improve her speed. While her years of soccer made her fast in short bursts, she said she needed to be able to keep up that pace over a longer distance.

“I would end up with more momentum coming out of my first 200,” Zukina said about her sprint training. “A lot of people don’t realize, but how you start off the 400 really determines how your last half goes.”

Dietrich, meanwhile, doesn’t believe Zukina is finished trimming time from her 400.

“She just keeps dropping time like crazy,” he said. “And it’s a pretty fun period where she’s trying to figure out how good she can become.”

In the big picture, Zukina hopes she is good enough to run for the Philippines in international competition. With dual citizenship, she could return to her ancestral home and run under the flag of the Philippines.

She said she is looking into the logistics of what that would take.

In the meantime, she has one more college track and field season to consider. She will have another year under Cudequest’s tutelage and hopes that will result in a trip to NCAAs and more records.

“With how training is going to go, especially with coach Taylor, I feel like I will be able to get there at some point,” Zukina said. “… There’s definitely some improvements in weaknesses that I can work on to get that time down.”