Haverford’s Olivia Cieslak, one of the nation’s top middle-distance runners, is a ‘jack of all trades’

For years, Olivia Cieslak and her mom, Aga, had a running routine.

They would go to Rose Tree Park in Delaware County, run a few miles, and get Rita’s Italian Ice afterward as a treat. But as Olivia got older — and her mileage and pace increased — Aga traded in her sneakers for a bike to keep up with her daughter on those runs.

“Probably around her freshman, sophomore year, I stopped running with her,” Aga Cieslak said. “I can still do a shakeout with her, like a quarter to three miles. … But going into high school, I could see she wasn’t an average runner. She’s special.”

The Haverford High School senior has since emerged into one of the nation’s top middle-distance runners. She holds 15 overall state medals and three team trophies across cross country, indoor, and outdoor track and field, with more likely to come this season.

Her times in the 800 meters, which is her favorite event, rank among the top in state history, and she recently announced her college commitment to Stanford, where Olympian Juliette Whittaker, the defending indoor and outdoor NCAA 800-meter champion, competes.

Cieslak will graduate as one of the most decorated high school runners in state history and could be the next worldwide star on the track.

“She is fast from the 400 [meters] all the way up to the 5K,” said Haverford cross country coach Laura Clinton, who’s also an assistant track and field coach. “She was the anchor of our girls’ state-medaling 4x400 relay [at the indoor state championship]. They won the silver medal this past year.

“She has individual records in the 800 and has individual medals in the mile. But she’s also the school record holder in the 3,200, which is about two miles, and she has the fastest time ever at the Lehigh course in the 5K, so she’s kind of like a jack of all trades.”

In April, Cieslak set a personal best in the 800 meters with a time of 2:04.77 at the Fords Track Classic. It marked the third-fastest time run by a high schooler in the nation in 2024. She also has a personal record of 4:42:72 in the mile.

Since she was a freshman, Cieslak has shed at least two seconds off her personal record in the 800 meters each year.

Her commitment goes without question, and she’s had stellar coaching along the way to help her get there. That started with her mom, who once competed as a middle-distance runner and introduced her daughter to cross country through the Philadelphia Catholic Youth Organization.

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“My mom’s my biggest supporter,” Olivia Cieslak said. “She’s a really big fan and someone I have trusted throughout my entire running career, and still to this day, she’ll ask me, ‘How was your run?’ or helping me with recovery. She’s someone I always looked up to.”

Aga Cieslak was born in Poland and ran on the country’s junior national team. She and her husband, Marcin, who played professional basketball in Poland and is now an assistant coach at Westtown, moved to the States more than 20 years ago, and eventually started a family.

Olivia and her older brother, Allen, who’s a junior guard on Susquehanna’s basketball team, have dual citizenship — which means Olivia could compete for Poland on an international stage, like the Olympics, if the opportunity presented itself.

“As of right now, she could choose to run for Team USA or Team Poland,” Aga Cieslak said. “I’m not going to lie, she feels more American because she was born here. She lives here, but she realized that it’s almost the hardest thing to make the Olympics with Team USA. It’s a little bit easier if you run from a different country, just because of the population.”

Olivia Cieslak plans on competing for Poland’s under-20 team at the European Athletics Championships in June, which will be the first time she’s representing a country in a race.

However, her focus right now is on her final year of high school. Now that her college commitment is made, she’s felt some weight lifted from her shoulders.

“Opportunities are limitless,” Olivia Cieslak said. “I feel like whatever happens, happens.”

That humble mindset was instilled at young age. Aga Cieslak always emphasized focusing on details. It’s not about setting a certain time, breaking a record, or where you’re ranked.

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“When you’re consistent, when you believe in yourself, and don’t put pressure, you just run free, then good things are going to happen,” Aga Cieslak said. “I always remind her about getting nine hours of sleep, recovery, ice baths once a week — she puts all this work into it, those little things matter.”

For the past three summers, Olivia Cieslak has been spending about a month in Colorado to train with Team Prep USA. The club helps high school runners condition in higher altitudes, and when she found out Stanford also goes to Colorado every summer for workouts, it was another positive on the list.

There were a number of schools she was considering. She narrowed her final four to Oregon, North Carolina, Florida, and Stanford.

“I wanted a coach who believed in me in both sports,” Olivia Cieslak said of cross country and track and field. “I saw that with Stanford. Coach [J.J.] Clark, he’s really good with the 800 and good with cross country. Also, Stanford, outside of running, was such a perfect school environment for me.”

Her high school career is not over yet. Perhaps she’ll set a new personal best in the 800 or add another state medal.

“We know she has what it takes to be an Olympian,” Aga Cieslak said. “She has so much talent, is driven, and is a great competitor, but it doesn’t mean that she will be, though I feel if she believes and wants it, she will.”