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Only the best satisfies Mansfield Timberview’s Williams sisters

MANSFIELD — Their Mansfield Timberview track teammates say the best way to tell them apart is the shoes. Kristyn Williams’ Asics are gray with a blue outline. Kaitlyn Williams, her twin sister, has the same model, with purple. Or wait, the teammates caution, maybe it’s the other way around.

In any pair of shoes, or in any forum, say, the track, the classroom or the library, Kristyn and Kaitlyn are hard to tell apart. This is not entirely because of their identical looks. There’s something else. Kaitlyn and Kristyn have the same wonderful voice inside their heads screaming that they can never complete enough work, never achieve enough.

Right now, Kristyn and Kaitlyn are preparing for the postseason track meets with hopes of top performances at district, regional and state. Once state is over, they are scheduled to graduate No. 1 and No. 2 in their class. They’ll attend Stanford.

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“Those girls are perfectionists,” Timberview coach Cinda Baer said. “They approach everything they do in life with the utmost effort. You can’t tell them to slow down or take it down a notch.”

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In grade school, Kristyn and Kaitlyn played a variety of sports. From karate to volleyball to softball, they were always active. Track made the most sense.

In fourth grade, their class had to complete a mile run. Kristyn was first and Kaitlyn third among all the boys and girls. The first year they started competing in AAU track, they qualified for nationals and have returned basically every year since.

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Baer knew them back then, when they were 9 years old. Their older brother, Terry, was running track for her in middle school and then high school. When Baer watched the young sisters, she could see a natural stride, their knees rising just so, and realized they would excel.

This had always been the case. Their parents, Jessie and Terry Williams, wanted to instill a sense of passion and work ethic early in their daughters’ lives.

“We’ve never really had to push them hard,” Jessie Williams said. “It’s just always been in them.”

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As a freshman, Kristyn won 4A state titles in the 400 meters and 800 meters. Kaitlyn finished third in the 400. Injuries have derailed the last two seasons for Kristyn, as she missed the state track meet. In her absence, Kaitlyn finished fourth in the 400 and 800 last year and anchored the fifth-place 4x400 relay team.

Together they have always had someone to train with, someone to compare results and workouts with.

“She knows my running style and my running abilities,” Kristyn said. “If I’m off she understands, whereas outside people might not.”

Baer rues the end of this season, when she will miss two runners who have been cornerstones for her program for the last four years. Stanford, she knows, will be lucky to have them.

What they’ll do at Stanford is not certain. Neither Kristyn nor Kaitlyn has decided on a major, and each one could do long sprints or middle distances. Any option should be a good one; the Williams sisters generally achieve at anything they strive to accomplish.

“They’ll become whatever they want to be,” Baer said. “Nothing is holding those girls back.”